Memories of Madison A Connected Community 1857-2007 by John Patrick Rankin emories o f Madison was prepared to support the Sesquicentennial Celebration for the City of Madison. It presents some of the knowledge Mand old photographs acquired by the author from more than a decade of research into families who settled the area and built, then sustained, the town. When James Clemens offered town lots for sale beside the Memphis & Charles­ ton Railroad depot in 1857, he had no way of foreseeing the prominence of those who would come to live there. Nor could he have anticipated the influences that citizens of the future town of Madison would have in state, national, and international politics through the years. Mr. Clemens passed away in June 1860 after selling only fifteen of the original fifty-five lots and without ever residing in the new town himself. However, Clemens did set the tone for social harmony and unity in his town by selling some of his lots to women (before suffrage and property rights were com­ mon) and even one lot on the primary residential street to a “free man of color” before the Civil War. This book reveals the sense of community that grew in the village, where various families became interconnected by marriages as well as business relationships. It also provides insights into the many connections of Madison families to notable early American families. The book concludes with selected anecdotes and tidbits relating to the citizenry of Madison and its pioneer days. Madison was founded as a railroad town, developed along the route of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad when it was built through northern Alabama in the mid-1850s. By that time, there were already many people living around the future town site, but the State of Alabama retained title to the location until 1854, when the property was sold to Huntsville resident James Clemens, father of U.S. Sen. Jeremiah Cle­ mens. Therefore, before James Clemens subdivided the land and sold lots, nobody was legally living within the square mile that became the core of the town. The story of Madison today is illustrated with color photographs of homes in the historic district, as well as of selected scenes that show some of the progress and unique ambiance of the town. The Madison story is entrenched in the context of socioeconomic conditions at the time of settlement, as influenced by nationally and internationally prominent relationships of the Madison pioneers. The closely interwoven families of the town through the last 150 years have together experienced triumphs and trag­ edies, and this book relates many of those stories through glimpses into the life records of the pioneers. More than comprising a historical book, these stories and photographs show the accomplishments of determined people who suc­ ceeded through pursuit of excellence in education and spirit of community tied to influential figures on a state and national level to make Madison today one of the most significant small cities in the South.

Mayor Author S. “Sandy” Kirkendall and the Madison City Council

Cynthia McCollum D istrict 1

Steve Haraway D istrict 2

Jerry Jennings D istrict 3

Tim Cowles D istrict 4

Tommy Overcash D istrict 5

Larry Vannoy D istrict 6

Bob Wagner D istrict 7 are pleased to make possible this special edition history o f the City o f Madison, Alabama, in honor o f our Sesquicentennial Celebration.

Memories o f Madison A Connected Community 1857-2007

by John Patrick Rankin

THE D o n n i n g C o m p a n y PUBLISHERS This book is dedicated to the life impacts of pioneers who lived, worked, and did business within the town and its surroundings during the last 150 years. It is particularly dedicated to Percy Brooks Keel and Gladys McFarlen True, whose efforts to discover and preserve the history of Madison and associated old photographs have directly enabled development of the book.

Copyright © 2007 by John Patrick Rankin

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever without permission in writing from the publishers, except for brief passages in connection with a review. For information, write:

The Donning Company Publishers 184 Business Park Drive, Suite 206 Virginia Beach, VA 23462-6533

Steve Mull, General Manager Barbara Buchanan, Office Manager Kathleen Sheridan, Senior Editor Stephanie Danko, Graphic Designer Scott Rule, Director of Marketing Tonya Hannink, Marketing Coordinator Cindy Smith, Project Research Coordinator

Neil Hendricks, Project Director Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rankin, John P Memories of Madison : a connected community, 1857-2007 /by John P Rankin. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-1-57864-398-1 ISBN-10: 1-57864-398-8 1. Madison (Ala.)— History. 2. Madison (Ala.)— History— Miscellanea. 3. Madison (Ala.)— Biography. 4. Historic buildings— Alabama— Madison. 5. Madison (Ala.)— Buildings, structures, etc. I. Title. F334.M18R36 2006 976.1’97— dc22 2006033200 Printed in the United States of America by Walsworth Publishing Company Contents

6 F oreword

7 Preface

8 A c k n o w l edgments

9 P r o l ogue

C H A P T E R I

10 In the Beginning...

C H A P T E R 2 20 Founder of Madison: James Clemens

C H A P T E R 3

30 Historic Homes & their Owners

80 Scenes o f Madison

C H A P T E R 4

98 True Tales of TidBits

138 Epilogue

139 Index

144 About the Author Foreword

he historic district in the City of Madison received an important recognition in March 2006. The entire district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. This was the culmination of two T years of work and recognizes the importance of the structures located there. I say two years based on the work I did, but in fact it was based on 150 years of work by the citizens of what we now call Madison. As important as it is to preserve our past in the form of buildings and houses, it is equally important to preserve the lives of the people who inhabited those structures. Never before have the pioneers of our town been so remembered. They are lucky that someone took the enormous amount of time, effort, expertise, and yes, love, required to do it. We stand on the shoulders of those who have come before. We owe it to them to tell their stories before they are lost to the mists of time. John Rankin has done ju st that.

Jeanne Steadman. President. Madison Station Historical Preservation Society Preface

emories of Madison was prepared as part of the Sesquicentennial Cel­ ebration for the City of Madison. It presents some of the knowledge gained by the author from more than a decade of research into fami­ Mlies who settled the area and built, then sustained, the town. The book represents an excerpt of and a companion media to the CD-ROM series of the Madison Memories Collection published by the Madison Station Historical Preservation Society, which provided much of the material herein. A c nowledgements

he generous assistance provided by Jeanne Steadman and Cindi Sander­ son in the preparation of this work is gratefully appreciated. Likewise, thanks are due to the many people who have helped the author to glean T Madison historical information during the last decade. Outstanding among those are Ranee Pruitt, Archivist of the Huntsville—Madison County Public Library, and Rhonda Larkin, Archivist of the Probate Court’s Madison County Records Center. Numerous descendants of the families described herein also have generously shared their photos and information with the author, and this work could not have been completed with­ out them. Mary Humphrey Crownover Gilbert was among the most prolific suppliers of information about early Madison families, and her help and contacts have been invaluable, as have been the historical contributions from Percy Keel and Julius Walter Camper and his kin. O f course, the tolerance and patience of my wife, M il­ dred Rankin, is also greatly appreciated for her understanding and support during the time required for research and writing in devel­ opment of this book. Lastly, photographs in this book are normally those made by the author from street scenes, Historical Society Jeanne Steadman and holdings, or research data as referenced in the captions. Whenever a photo was Cindi Sanderson from other sources or known to have been made by another, it is so noted either in the caption or on the photograph.

Percy Keel Mary Humphrey Gilbert Rhonda Larkin

Mildred M. Rankin Ranee Pruitt Prologue

hen James Clemens offered town lots for sale beside the Memphis & Charleston Railroad depot in 1857, he had no way of foreseeing the prominence of those who would come to live there. Nor could he have anticipated the influences that citizens of the future town of Madison would have in state, national, and international politics through the years. WUnfortunately, Mr. Clemens passed away in June 1860 after selling fifteen of the original fifty-five lots and without ever residing in the new town himself. However, Clemens did set the tone for social harmony and unity in his town by selling some of his lots to women (before suffrage) and even one lot on the primary residential street to a “free man of color” betore the Civil War. This book reveals the sense of community that grew in the village, where various families became interconnected by marriages and business relationships. The book tells stories of the early families and their descendants (in some cases, to present days) in association with the houses where they lived in the historic district and in the immediately surrounding areas. By intent, the book does not focus on the history of the town or its business district with respect to structures, politics, or events. For such additional information, readers are referred to the previously referenced CD -RO M series and other published works mentioned in the text. The book concludes with selected anecdotes and tidbits relating to the citizenry of Madison.

CHAPTER ONE In the Beginning...

adison was founded as a railroad town, developed along the route of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad when it was built through the area in the mid-1850s. By that time, there were already many peopleM living around the future town site, but nobody was legally living within the square mile that became the core of the town. The absence of population at the location was not from any lack of appeal; it was simply that the land was initially reserved as state property until 1854. In fact, the property was highly appealing to pioneers search­ ing for fertile land, as can be seen in a look back at the earliest settlements of the area. W hen the pioneers came in the early 1800s to the area around what is now Madison, they could have continued traveling to the west. However, they found reasons to stay here. Some of those reasons surely included that they encountered a good place with rich soil, abundant springs, and pleasing topography. They beheld features of great natural beauty and healthful conditions that pre­ vail to this day. Madison sits on a well-drained plateau west of the Appalachian Mountains of northeastern Alabama. The Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek Indians had used the area for years as a shared hunting ground, but they had no permanent villages in north central Alabama. Some accounts indicate that the Native Americans burned sections of forests to drive out the game as they hunted— a practice that not only added nutrients to the soil, but it created large areas of open grasslands. Even the name “Alabama” is an Indian word that literally means “thicket clearers.” It must have been paradise indeed for a farmer to begin plowing without having to first clear land. O f course, the native population had other ideas about proper land usage, so from the time of the squatter “Sims Settlement” in the region there was trouble with pioneers taking possession of T op: 1850s locomotive the reserved lands west of the old Chickasaw Indian Boundary Line. That line A bove: Early depot in Madison; ran from Hobbs Island in the Tennessee River northwest into Tennessee near three tracks; cotton and wood Ardmore, running partly along the present route of Slaughter Road. Details about the squatter population can be found in the book Sims Settlement, Our Opposite Page: 1875 Madison Squatter Ancestors, 1806—1818, by R uth Dixon and Bob Priest, 1989. County map excerpt Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Pioneer Settlers Since Mobile was permanently settled in the early 1700s, it is certainly logical that some European trappers and hunters visited north Alabama around that time. In fact, the area was mapped to a degree, if not settled, when Span­ ish explorers traversed it in the 1500s. As the United States grew from infancy, the region was known as the Great Bend of the Tennessee River. The states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia laid claim to the area in the late 1700s. Georgia named the Great Bend region “Houstoun,” and various companies purchased land sale rights to the region from the state of Georgia. However, so many frauds were perpetrated in sales of the same tracts to mul­ tiple parties that the United States intervened in 1802 and canceled all prior sales. During his last year in office (1796), President George Washington appointed Benjamin Hawkins as Indian Agent to secure the Great Bend region against fur­ ther encroachment by squatters. Thus, our first president was certainly aware of this area, and it would turn out that several of his relatives eventually came to settle in the vicinity. The federal government tried to keep the area’s Indians placated by removing and blocking squatter settlements, thereby keeping the Indians from siding with the British in the impending War of 1812. Still, there were concerns about a possible combined British and Indian attack from the west, so a local militia company was formed to guard against such an attack. After the War of 1812 was concluded, the Indians realized that they had no further leverage with Washington, D.C., so the tribes ceded their land in this area by 1816. However, the land was surveyed for two years before it was offered by the government to purchasers, with squatters having first rights. Thomas Freeman was appointed federal surveyor for this area, and Madison County became first in the nation to be systematically surveyed before being sold by the government. Sales of land around the future town of Madison began on February 2, 1818. As a point of reference, the population of squatters on Indian land at the time of the first census in Madison County (January 1809) was esti­ mated to exceed that of the legal settlement of land east of the Indian Boundary Line. As the lands were surveyed, measurements were recorded in grids of sections, townships, and ranges. There are thirty-six sections (each being one mile square, 640 acres) in every township-range coordinate. O f the thirty-six sections per town ship-range coordinate, the sixteenth was always reserved to the state as “school land” for funding of public education either by direct sale or other use to produce income. Madison was originally established primarily within the northwest quarter of the sixteenth section of Township 4 South and Range 2 West of the Huntsville basis meridian. (The “basis meridian” for north Alabama runs along Meridian Street and through Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville.) Because the town area was state “School Land,” no settlers could legally own or farm the land that became Madison unless they had a lease from the state. However, squatters who failed to respect Indian ownership most likely did not respect school land restrictions either. Still, there was no known record of anyone ever living on or farming the land of the sixteenth section here prior to its sale in 1854 to James Clemens. Until that time, the land theoretically lay fallow, with only hunters using it to put meat on the table. Yet, unused fertile land surrounded by pioneer farmers was highly improbable. Chapter One: In the Beginning... 13

The people most likely to hunt upon or farm the sixteenth section land before 1854 were those who owned property around that section from 1818 purchases of adjacent non-school acreage. The first area landowners surrounding the sixteenth section included Charles Betts, Benjamin Bledsoe, John Cartwright, William T. Crenshaw, Reuben Crutcher, Michael Farley, Roland Gooch, Elijah Hussey, John N. S. Jones, James Manning, Thomas Matthews, Daniel Mitchell, David M on­ roe, Thomas T. Mosely, William S. Mosely, Gross Scruggs, Stith B. Spragins, William Thompson, and John Withers. These men did not all reside on lands that they bought in the Madison area. In most cases, they already owned land elsewhere in the county and may have lived on their other holdings. That is true for John Cartwright in 1818, as he had seven government land patents, including two in the southwestern corner of today’s Redstone Arsenal just barely over two miles from the town of Triana, where his family would probably have preferred to reside between 1818 and the 1850s. Additionally, the 1830 census shows that the only John Cartwright in Madison County was enumerated among families known to live away from the Madison area. While earlier histories have stated that John Cartwright was the first known settler of the town of Madison, that is obviously incorrect, since he died by October 1839 when his will was probated. The town was not founded until 1857, nearly twenty years after John’s burial. Furthermore, John Cartwright’s land near Madison was actually about two miles west of the town site. There were several other early area settlers who lived much closer to the eventual site of Madison than Cartwright, whose tract was at Palmer Road and County Line Road. The above-listed nineteen men who bought land around the sixteenth section in 1818 are all candidates as Madison’s “first settler,” along with any unknown squatters remaining on the sixteenth section from when it was Indian land. The area’s known squatters included David and William Capshaw, James Garner, Thomas Dodd, John Humphreys, William Canterbury, Jesse Fitts, William M artin, Elisha Rainbolt (often “Rainboll,” thought to be the namesake of Rain­ bow M ountain, where he legally owned land), James and William Slaughter, and several families with surnames of Trimble, Smith, and Priest. O f all the early Cotton field near Madison settlers named above, Benjamin Bledsoe, David Monroe, Charles Betts, and Roland Gooch owned land adjoining the sixteenth section’s northwestern corner, where the town was later founded. Bledsoe and Monroe held other parcels, but Betts and Gooch were known to live on their lands here. Early “Notables” While not everyone discussed henceforth settled within the original “city limits,” they had impact upon infrastruc­ ture of the yet-to-be-born town. In fact, without the area’s early cotton-farming population there would have been no desire by the railroad to establish a station here. The settle­ ment of the region was strongly driven by the cotton economy in the 1800s. Cotton was absolutely crucial to both settlement and railroading, which in turn brought mer­ chants to the town. The pioneers were drawn by conditions conducive to cotton farming. The railroad business hinged upon transportation of commodities and people to and from markets. The merchants were drawn by the wealth of the farmers. In the early 1800s, newspapers along the eastern coast of the United States ran stories of the wealth that could be acquired by cotton farming in northern Alabama. It was noted that land could be acquired for about one dol­ lar per acre from the government, and that the average yield per acre of cotton in the area was worth at least $400 per year. Considering that the larger landowners generally had slaves pro­ Top: Cotton plant viding “free” labor, they could expect to experience about 400-to-l return on their investment in cotton farming each year. Those figures were compared to the much A bove: Matured cotton bolls lighter yields in places like Virginia and the Carolinas, where land was becoming depleted without commercial fertilizers. It is no wonder that a flood of immigrants bearing funds for purchase of large tracts of land came to the area. Early settlers and notable landowners that helped induce the railroad to build a station in the area included Clement Comer Clay, John Withers, Michael Far­ ley, the Lanier family, Steptoe Pickett, and descendants of Gov. Thomas Bibb of Belle Mina. Virginia had been the former home of almost all of these men. Chapter One: In the Beginning...1 5

Farmers' (Whitworth) Gin Company; Madison in the 1950s. Willie Pope and Gilbert Hewlett bringing cotton in wagon.

Waiting in line to weigh cotton, 1950s

Unloading cotton into gin

Cotton seed removal stage at gin 16 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Removing cotton bale from press

Cotton bales on loading dock

Moving cotton bale from gin dock, 1950s Chapter One: In the Beginning... 17

Thomas Bibb was the second governor of Alabama. His brother, William, was the territorial governor and the first governor of the state, but William died from an accidental fall from his horse after only a few months in office. Thomas was serving as President of the Alabama Sen­ ate in 1820 when his brother died, and he thereby succeeded his brother by rules of the state constitution at the time. James Henry Bibb, who later lived and died in Madison, was related to the Belle Mina Bibbs via their shared ancestor, Benjamin Bibb of Virginia, who was born in 1640. The local Bibb family ancestry includes John Dandridge, who was father of M artha Dandridge Custis Washington, first “First Lady” of the United States. Clement Comer Clay came to Huntsville in 1811 as a young attor­ ney. He quickly established several plantations, including one that covered the northern end of the airport today. His land there adjoined that of John Withers to the north, and it may have been through that connection that he met John’s daughter, Susannah Claiborne Withers. T h ey w ere m arried in 1815, and Clement entered politics in 1818, becom ing the Thomas Bibb, governor of eighth governor o f the state in 1835. H e was a close friend of Jefferson D avis, Alabama, 1820—1821 president of the Confederate States of America. A son of Clement and Susan­ nah, Clement Claiborne Clay, was reported by Judge Robert E. Wiggins to have been born “just south of Madison”, which location would fit for either a Clay house or a Withers house, if Susannah went back to her parents’ or a brother’s house to have her child. Clement C. Clay Jr. also became prominent in politics at the state and federal levels. Michael Farley took land just east of the location of old Madison. Today the Farley-Crutcher Cemetery is located on his land near Horizon Elementary School. His sons included a doctor who became the namesake of the Farley community near Whitesburg. His descendants intermarried with Gillespies, Trotmans, and Crutchers, among others of the Madison pioneers. The Lanier family settled on property that today is part of Redstone Arsenal. They owned several thousand acres (in I e f t : Clement Comer all, about a tenth of the total sixty thousand acres of arsenal land) before the Civil Clay, governor of Alabama, War. After the war, two of the three sons of Burwell Clinton Lanier Sr. came to 1835-1837 the new town of Madison Station, as the village was known. The family main­ R ight: Clement Claiborne tained large cotton-raising operations on the pre-arsenal lands, but they were part Clay, 1860s (born in of Madison. Their family history includes notables in Virginia and England, Madison area) as well as shared descent from the paternal grandfather of President George Washington. (More about the Laniers is given in Chapter Three, the family story related to 154 Maple Street.) 18 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Steptoe Pickett initially located near Triana on the Tennessee River. How­ ever, his widow, Sarah, and their children moved to Madison after his death. Two of their daughters later married into families of governors of the state. Steptoe was a son of Col. M artin Pickett and his wife, Ann Blackwell, of Virginia’s Paradise Plantation. Steptoe married Sarah Orrick Chilton at Currioman Plantation in Westmoreland County of Virginia in 1811. About ten years later, they moved to the southeastern corner of Limestone County, where they lived close to the Black- well and Collier families along the river. The Picketts had thirteen children, of whom child number five, Felicia Chilton Pickett, married Reuben Chapman, a governor of Alabama. Child number thirteen, Anna Corbin Pickett, married Thomas Bibb, the third of eight children of Gov. Thomas Bibb of nearby Belle M ina Plantation. One can only imagine the parties in the governor’s mansion at Belle M ina that were attended by the Picketts of Madison. At various times, the Belle M ina mansion hosted such dignitaries as Bavarian Prince Franz von Bayern from the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, according to Chris Edwards and Faye Axford in their book The Lure and Lore of Limestone County (Alabama), published in 1978. The Collier neighbors ot the Picketts owned Myrtle Grove Plantation along the river between Triana and Mooresville. One of their grandchildren married Dr. William Pickett, the ninth child of Steptoe and Sarah. The seventh child of Steptoe and Sarah, Dr. John Scott Pickett, married Martha Blackwell, daughter of Wil­ liam Henry Blackwell and Eliza Collier. Sarah Virginia Pickett, the eleventh child Belle Mina, mansion of Governor of Steptoe and Sarah, married M artha Blackwell’s brother, Samuel. The Blackwells Thomas Bibb, built 1826. (Photo descended from Joseph Blackwell, royal surveyor for King Charles I of England. by Viictor Haagen in Alabama Heritage by Virginia Pounds He came to Virginia in 1639 and established Walnut Lodge Plantation. Brown and Helen Morgan Considering the number of intermarriages among the Picketts, Blackwells, and Akens, 1967) Colliers, their plantation houses surely must have hosted numerous balls and other Chapter One: In the Beginning... 19

celebrations in pre-Civil War days along the river. Collier descendants also moved to Madison from the plantations. Their siblings and relatives included Henry Wat­ kins Collier, who was a Supreme Court chief justice and governor of Alabama— as well as M ary Harrison Dent, wife of Thomas Bouldin Collier, eighth of the ten Collier children. M ary and Thomas owned land immediately southwest of the pres­ ent site of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. M ary Dent Collier was a close relative of Julia Dent Grant, wife of Ulysses S. Grant, the notorious Union general and president of the United States. Additionally, the second of the ten children of James and Elizabeth Collier of Myrtle Grove Plantation, Wyatt Collier, married Janet Walker. Axford and Edwards, in the book previously cited, state that Janet’s father was James Walker of Nashville, who “ . . . may have been the father of William Walker . .., who served as President of Nicaragua in 1856.” All these families were involved in the Madison area, and several of their descendants became citizens of the town. Marriages of the Colliers, Picketts, and Blackwells formed ties to the Slaughter, Stewart, and Withers families of the infant town. However, perhaps one of the most intriguing of the pioneer families was that of William and Eleanor Gray. They came here in their old age with several adult children, probably while the land was still Indian territory. William took land where Balch Road approaches Gillespie Road today. The Gray Cemetery is still there, and for a time it served as the burial ground for members of the Providence Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which was located on the hilltop behind today’s Balch Road Self Storage facilities owned by Gene Hailey. Burials in the cemetery were discon­ tinued about a hundred years ago, but it was observed by Dorothy Scott Johnson in her 1971 book Cemeteries of Madison Comity, Alabama, Volume 1, that it was one of the most unique in the county. It has a number of brick and rock-covered graves plus a slave-made brick wall with glazing on the top layer. It also has a number of box crypts for the Gray family that are now broken. The graves for William and Eleanor and their son, Joseph, are brick-covered. The old tombstones, now gone, were recorded by Dot Johnson as stating that William Gray died in 1834 at age seventy-nine. He was a Revolutionary War soldier, and he served on the first jury empaneled in Madison County. H is wife, Eleanor, died in 1822, her sixty-fifth year. Their son, James Gray, is also buried nearby, under one of the collapsed box crypts, beside his wife, Jane, who is under another collapsed box crypt. William Gray was born in Perth, Scotland, near Edinburgh, where he married Eleanor Wardrobe, sister of Lord Wardrobe. One can only imagine the criticisms that William may have gotten at home for bringing his bride from the civilization of Scotland to the primitive Indian lands of America. After their deaths, the land was sold by their son David to H ezekiah Bailey, a son of Moses Bailey, who is another Revolutionary W ar soldier buried in Madison. The Bailey family sold the land to Nathaniel Matson Gooch, who was a son of Roland Gooch, pioneer of the Madison area. Gooch sold the land to George S. and Samuel Edgar Gillespie, ancestors of Gene Hailey. It should also be noted that Thomas Gray, son of W illiam and Eleanor, left the area to live for a time in Tennessee. W hen Thom as’ son, Pleasant Gray, moved to east Texas, he found an area that reminded him of “home” with a bluff that had a large spring flowing from its base. There he named the town that he established “Huntsville” in honor of the county seat of the area where he had been born. '

CHAPTER TWO Founder of Madison: James Clemens

ames Clemens was born in Pennsylvania in 1778. He came from Kentucky in 1812 to Huntsville, where he lived at Clinton and Church Streets, in a house that was recently moved to Dallas Street near Pratt Avenue’s junction Jwith Meridian Street. He was related to noted author and humorist Samuel Clemens (“M ark Twain”). James was also father of U.S. Sen. Jeremiah Clemens of Huntsville. While owning several cotton plantations, both James and Jeremiah Clemens developed anti-slavery sentiments, and James freed his household slaves in 1855—6. Intent on providing a namesake to his legacy, James Clemens bought most of the school lands of the sixteenth section of Township 4 South and Range 2 West from the state of Alabama on January 5, 1854. H is plan was apparently to establish a village around a depot on the newly constructed Memphis & Charleston Railroad at a point ten miles west of Huntsville and ten miles east of Decatur. By 1857 he had laid out a plat of fifty-five town lots to offer for sale to merchants and residents. The rectangular lots fronting the railroad were 66 feet wide and 198 feet deep. These dimensions were keyed to surveyor chain standard lengths, which were James Clemens' house in Huntsville, 66 feet long. Therefore, the lots were one chain wide and three chains deep. The original location concept was to allow or encourage on each lot along the railroad a “storehouse” Opposite page: Cindy Sensenberger (both a store and a house, combined, where merchandise was offered at the front holding her 2004 Clemens Award, made entrance, and the merchant lived behind the merchandise area) plus sufficient land with brick from James Clemens’ house 22 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community; 1857-2007

Plat of original town lots Chapter Two: Founder of Madison: James Clemens 23

behind the storehouse to grow a garden and raise chickens, pigs, and possibly a cow to feed the merchant’s family. O f course, the “outhouse” (sanitation facility) also had to be located in the back yard in those days, as was a cistern or well for a water supply. It was not unusual for a lot owner to subdivide a lot, allowing two storehouses on lots along the main street. W hen this occurred, each storehouse was thirty-three feet wide, but that was sufficient for most establishments of the day. (A few records have even been found of storehouses that were only twenty feet wide along Main Street.) T he first lot sale for which documenta­ tion has been found occurred on February 13, 1857, to G eorge W ashington M artin, son of Richard M artin and his wife, Lydia Pass Fitts (Fitz), who lived on the north­ eastern slope of Rainbow Mountain, having settled there before 1810. The local M artin family may have been represented by those of the same surname who were impris­ oned on the British ship Old Jersey during the Revolutionary War. The same given names as for some of the Madison pioneers were encountered for later generations of M artins and connected families of Fitts, Pass, and Brewer. The list of American patriots held on the prison ship by the Brit­ ish included Madison-associated names of Francis, Jesse, and Thomas Martin, plus Richard and William Pass, along with Christopher Fitts and John and Samuel Brewer. Before he purchased the first lot in the newly planned town of Madison, G. W. M artin had already gone into the retail merchandising business in a partnership in the town of Triana. He apparently foresaw the growth opportunities pro­ vided by locating along the railroad, and he abandoned the river town, as so many were to do soon afterward. Triana became a ghost town by the 1880s as rail replaced the Tennessee River steamboats in the cotton transportation business. In May Title bond, first Madison lot sold, 1857, George’s first cousin, Thomas W. M artin, son of Jesse M artin, entered into February 13, 1857 partnership with G. W. at the Madison store on the south side of the railroad. Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

1857 Title bond of James Clemens to George W Martin, page 2 Chapter Two: Founder of Madison: James Clemens

Thomas J. Clay bought the second lot that James Clemens sold, across the Southern railroad from M artin’s storehouse, on March 6, 1857. Clemens paid youth of the Advocate newspaper, area to tack up fingerboards along roads, directing travelers to “Clemens Depot.” Huntsville, Flowever, the railroad failed to use that name for the village, and its maps showed May 7, 1857 it as “Madison Station.” This latter name was used in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion and on maps of that time. Madison Station quickly became a center of activity in the late 1850s. The residents of the area prior to 1857 had been grouped into a tax district called McElhaney’s Precinct 8 from the name of David McElhaney, who lived where Lowe’s Home Improvement Center is now located on U.S. Highway 72. How­ ever, area citizens petitioned the county commissioners in February 1857 to move the polling place to Madison depot, which verifies that the depot was built by that time. The request was implemented in August 1857. The census of 1860 began the enumeration of residents as being in Madison Station Precinct 8 (served by the Madison Station Post Office and considered to be associated with the town of Madison for business and voting reasons) if they lived not only in the village but also in the areas that are now the northern part of Redstone Arsenal, the southern portion of Research Park, north of town to Highway 72, and even south to New Haven. New Haven no longer is recognized as such, but it was south of the junction of Wall-Triana Highway and M artin Road. 26 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Page 62, February Term, County James Clemens died on June 7, 1860, at the age of eighty-three, just after Commissioners’ Court, 1857 the 1860 census was taken. He left the executors of his estate to complete the town lot sales after he had sold about fifteen of them. Clemens’ son, Jeremiah, died in 1865, without ever inheriting anything from his father’s estate. The first administrator of the estate (Benjamin Patterson) died after only a year or so in that capacity, and new administrators were appointed by the probate court. Suits were filed to contest the distribution of assets, and the whole affair ended up in chancery court for several years, with many people apparently falsely claiming debts owed to them by the Clemens estate. The chancery court minutes of the considerations and decisions relative to the Clemens estate entail more than two hundred pages of documentation. The final settlement of the Clemens estate was not reached until the 1870s, but most of the Madison town lots were sold at public auction by court order on M ay 5, 1868. As best can be determined for now, the initial or earliest known owners of record for Clemens’ original fifty-five town lots were:

Lot 1— Sold initially to John J. “Studdivant” on 5 Oct. 1868, but he backed out of the deal, and the lot was subsequently sold at auction to Seymour Doolittle on 17 Jan 1876.

Lot 2 — 5 Oct. 1868— Hamilton G. Bradford

Lot 3 — 20 Dec. 1870—Theodorick S. Clay Chapter Two: Founder of Madison: James Clemens 27

Lot 4 — 20 Dec. 1870—-Theodorick Clay

Lot 5 — 5 Oct. 1868— Hamilton Bradford

Lot 6 — 25 Nov. 1869— Dr. Isaac H. Deloney

Lot 7— Owned by Mrs. Sarah A. Clay by 1869 or earlier

Lot 8 — Owned by Sarah Clay

Lot 9— 1 Jan. 1858— Micajah N. Pope, as trustee for Jane Curtis (Custisr M artha Dandridge Custis Washington’s first husband’s line, which had Pope connections)

Lot 10— Owned by Mrs. Sarah Clay, who sold it to Dr. George R. Sullivan, 1 D ec. 1869

Lot 11— 1 Oct. 1858—John W. Cosby, sold to C. C. Gewin in 1859 and to G. W. M artin in 1860

Lot 12 — 13 Feb. 1857— George W. Martin

Lot 13 — 13 Feb. 1857— George M artin

Lot 14— 6 Mar. 1857—Thomas J. Clay, trustee for his wife and children

Lot 15 — 6 M ar. 1857— Thomas Clay, trustee

Lot 16 — 12 Oct. 1859—John W. Cosby & James E. H . Bailey (doing business as Cosby & Bailey. Bailey was a son of Elijah and M artha A. Vaughan Bailey Cartwright. He was a blacksmith, and John Cosby owned a brick kiln that provided the bricks to construct houses and shops in the town, including the storefront of first merchant G. W. M artin, which today is Whitworth Realty, 110 Main Street.)

Lot 17— 13 May 1860—Theodorick Clay (wife Jane El. Clay)

Lot 18 — 13 May 1860—Theodorick Clay

Lot 19 — 22 Jan. 1860— Dr. William B. Dunn (railroad agent, stationmaster)

Lot 20 — 24 Nov. 1869— William Dunn

Lot 21 — 24 Nov. 1869—-William Dunn

Lot 22 — 24 Nov. 1869— William Dunn 28 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Lot 23 — 24 Nov. 1869— William Dunn

Lot 24 — 5 Mar. 1860— Edmund “Ned” M artin (“free man of color”)

Lot 2 5 — 22 Dec. 1868— Samuel A. Pepper

Lot 26 — 24 Nov. 1869—William Dunn

Lot 27— 24 Nov. 1869—William Dunn

Lot 28 — 24 Nov. 1869— William Dunn

Lot 29— 13 May 1860—Theodorick Clay

Lot 3 0 — 13 May 1860—Theodorick Clay

Lot 31— 5 Oct. 1868— Mrs. Jane E. Clay

Lot 32 — 20 Apr. 1857—James E. H. Bailey

Lot 3 3 — 20 Apr. 1857—James E. H. Bailey

Lot 34 — 20 May 1869— William R. Johnston (first mayor of Madison, in 1869)

Lot 35 — 22 Dec. 1868— Samuel A. Pepper

Lot 36 — 3 Nov. 1870— Sallie M. Martin

Lot 37 — 3 Nov. 1870— Sallie Martin

Lot 38 — 5 Oct. 1868—Thomas J. Clay

Lot 39 — 5 Oct. 1868—Thomas Clay

Lot 40 — 5 Oct. 1868— Elijah M. Fitts (Fitz)

Lot 41— 20 Dec. 1870—Theodorick S. Clay (for a Baptist church, but sold in 1875 to a Sneed)

Lot 42— 5 Oct. 1868— Elijah Fitts

Lot 43— 5 Oct. 1868— Hamilton G. Bradford

Lot 44— 5 Oct. 1868— Hamilton Bradford

Lot 45— 5 Oct. 1868— Hamilton Bradford Chapter Two: Founder of Madison: James Clemens 29

Lot 4 6 — 5 Oct. 1868—John Anderson

Lot 47— 5 Oct. 1868—James H. Bibb

Lot 4 8 — 5 Oct. 1868— Hamilton Bradford

Lot 49— 3 May 1859— George W. Martin

Lot 50— 3 Dec. 1869— George Martin

Lot 51— 5 Oct. 1868— George Martin

Lot 52— 5 Oct. 1868— George Martin

Lot 5 3 — 31 Dec. 1858—Thomas J. Clay

Lot 54— 3 Dec. 1869— George Martin

Lot 5 5 — 5 Oct. 1868— Hamilton Bradford

CHAPTER THREE Historic Homes & their Owners

aturally, almost all of the old homes built on the first fifty-five lots have been replaced by newer houses. Still, there are several of Madison’s houses in the historic district that date back to the late 1800s. Most ofN the houses whose owning families are described below will be found along Main, M artin, Front, Arnett, and Church Streets. A few were chosen from nearby areas for the historical significance of the owning families in relation to the town. Photographs of the majority of the houses of the historic district as they currently appear are included on pages 80—97. Keep in mind, however, that only a select number of the families of the historic homes of Madison are addressed herein. Much more informa­ tion and associated photographs can be found in the Madison Memories Collection CD-ROM series. 12 Main Street The Strong-Whitworth house and property today cover several of the original Strong-Whitworth House lots from the corner with Sullivan Street. The large empty space between this house and the next to the east was at one time the location of the Hafley Hotel, Opposite page from top: Anderson-Sensenberger House; also called the Smith Hotel and the Bronaugh House (an inn) at various times. Osiah Palmer family in Indiana, The first several lots along Main Street contained the home and blacksmith with second wife, Margaret Hoss shop of Seymour Doolittle, who purchased Lot 1 from the Clemens estate at ler (downloaded from website); public auction for only $15 in January 1876. That lot had been sold to John J. Bibb House Bed Breakfast “Studdavant” (Sturdivant) for $50 by the Clemens estate on 5 October 1868. Inn, Ann Whatley on porch; Her­ However, Studdavant backed out of the deal, perhaps due to a sudden downturn man, BurwelL, Arthur, and Cora Humphrey, about 1928. 32 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

in business or other difficulty, or possibly due to the realiza­ tion that a part of the lot would be taken for the public road that is now Sullivan Street. T he 1860 census of M adison showed him as age twenty-two, grocer, living next door to Edmund Martin on Front Street. The 1870 census showed him as age thirty-one, keeper of a livery stable, with a wife and four children. At that time, he was living next door to blacksmith Seymour Doolittle and wagon maker James Strong, with Rebecca Bibb nearby. As part of the chancery court settlement of the Clemens estate, Lot 1 was ordered to be sold again in the 1876 public auction. Hafley Hotel, 14 Main Hamilton Bradford, Dr. Isaac Deloney, and Theodorick Clay owned some Street (destroyed) ol the adjacent lots, but Seymour Doolittle, J. W. and Susan Bryant, and others beginning in 1869 purchased the lots leading to the Clay House, which is next door today. In 1902 Seymour and Indiana Doolittle sold Lots 1, 2, 3, and 4 to Charles and Maggie Strong plus J. A. Strong (“an unmarried man”). In the 1870 census, wagon maker James Strong (with a wife and three children) was enumerated as living next door to Seymour Doolittle. The 1913 Weekly Mercury Main Street before 1900 (Postcard newspaper issue about Madison described the Strong Brothers (C. A. and J. A.) photo by C. C. Kropp Company, as being in the businesses of wagon making, woodworking, blacksmithing, horse­ Milwaukee, Wisconsin, supplied by Kip Taylor of Taylor Electric shoeing, and general repairs (to farming implements) plus operating a gasoline in Madison; found in Nashville, engine-driven gristmill. Charles Strong served as mayor of Madison from about Tennessee, flea market) 1902 to 1917. Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 33

The appearance of the town’s Main Street businesses about this time is Circa 1920 Main Street depicted in postcard photographs of the period. The Strong home and businesses on the Doolittle site burned in 1905, but the house was rebuilt in that same year. After extensive remodeling, it is now owned by Sara Landman Whitworth, who purchased it in 1952 with her hus­ band, Tommy. Sara owns and operates Whitworth Realty out of her shop at 110 M ain Street, location of the 1857 store of George Washington M artin, first pur­ chaser of a lot in the town. Sara’s ancestor, William Landman from Virginia, was Clay-Collier-Wise-Wikle-Nix- among the first settlers of Redstone Arsenal property, where his pioneer cemetery Brewer House is preserved today by the Army. 16 Main Street Thought to be the oldest house still standing in Madison, part of the Clay House Museum was built around 1858. The house sits on L ot 9, which was sold by James Clemens on 1 January 1858 to Jane Curtis (indistin­ guishable from Custis) via Micajah N. Pope, acting as trustee for Jane. (The Pope family is connected to George Washington’s family and the Custis line.) Today the property includes some of the other lots between this house and the Whitworth home. Sarah A. Clay bought Lot 9 from Jane Curtis in 1866, 34 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

paying $1,500 in gold when most Southerners were destitute immediately after the Civil War. The 1870 census listed her occupation as “seamstress.” According to the research of Robin Brewer, owner-operator of the Clay House Museum, Sarah Clay was the wife of Andrew J. Clay, whom she married in 1858. They lived in the Shoal Ford area of Limestone County (where High­ way 72 crosses Limestone Creek) at the time of the 1860 census, and Andrew became a casualty of the Civil War. Sarah had married Robertson Webb in 1841, and they had several children. One of those children was Wiley Webb, who was killed in the Battle of the Wilderness during the Civil War. Robert­ son Webb was the guardian of Nancy Webb Clay’s minor children (one being Andrew Clay) by a senior Thomas Clay from Virginia. The 1830 Madison County census listed the Thomas Clay household as consisting of seven males and three females. In the 1840 census, Nancy Clay’s household was listed as consisting of three males and three females. There was no Thomas Clay listed in the 1840 census in Madison, Morgan, Marshall, or Limestone Counties of Alabama, so it is assumed that he died in Madison County in the 1830s. The senior Clay’s children included brothers Andrew, Thomas, and Theodorick Clay, who all lived in Madison later. Andrew’s brother, Thomas Clay, also married a “Sarah A.,” as did Thomas’ son, Henry. The widow of Andrew Clay purchased several adjacent lots and other parcels of land in the Madison area. She sold a portion of Lot 7 in 1874 to an Episcopal Church, but there is no evidence in the deeds that the church ever met there. H er house was expanded through the years, and in the 1920s it was bought by Dr. J. Ollie Wikle, whose son, Capt. Jessie “Ollie” Wikle, was killed during World War II when his Flying Fortress was shot down after many suc­ cessful missions. Madison’s Veterans Park is named in his honor. The Wikle family had several generations of doctors, and Luther Lafay­ ette Wikle was the first of the family to settle in Madison. H e was born in 1855 in Cartersville, Georgia, and began his medical practice in Blount County, T op: Dr. Jessie Ollie Wikle, Alabama. While there, he married Jane Armstrong, a granddaughter of George 1891-1954 Hallmark, a Revolutionary War patriot who died at the western foot of Green B o tto m : Dr. Luther Mountain in Madison County about 1814. According to the Hallmark Fam­ Lafayette Wikle, 1855—1941 ily Association’s website, another of the Hallmark descendants was a manager

309 Church Street, Dr. Luther L. Wikle’s home 210 Main Street, location of Dr. Luther Wikle’s office Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 35

with the Hallmark Card Company, even though the company’s name was not Anderson-Sensenberger House derived from the family name. Dr. J. Ollie Wikle was one of the children of Luther and jane. Dr. Luther Wikle was president of the Madison County Medical Asso­ ciation, a Mason, an Odd Fellow, and an avid gardener. He was enumerated in the 1920 census along Front Street, but later he resided at 309 Church Street. Dr. Wikle and his son who lived in the Clay House established a shared practice at 210 M ain Street in 1923. 17 Front Street The house at this address is located on original Lots 23 and 24. Lot 24 was first purchased from James Clemens by Edmund “Ned” M artin on 5 May 1860, just about one month before Clemens’ death and about a year before the start of the Civil War and the associated Emancipation Proclamation. It was the last lot sold by Clemens himself. Edmund was a “free man of color” per deed notations and a carpenter per the 1860 census. That census showed that Edmund was thirty years old, had a wife named Sarah at age forty-five, and had a daughter named Lucinda at age nine, all born in Alabama. They were enumerated in a complex of free black households clustered around the house of blacksmith William T. Dunnivant, who lived next door to Thomas Clay and Theodorick Clay on Front Street. Additional data in the Madison County deeds show that Edmund M artin was born in Morgan County. 36 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Deed from James Clemens to It may be that events related to the Civil War led to Edmund M artin aban­ Edmund Martin, 1860 doning his lot or otherwise leaving the area. That theory recognizes the fact that after the Reconstruction-era chancery court’s handling of the Clemens estate in 1868, depot agent William Dunn sold Lot 24 to Bettie Turner. She was noted as his “coloured” servant in Deed Book JJ, pages 455—6. The sale was witnessed by Richard A. Wiggins and his son, Robert E. Wiggins. Richard Wiggins’ wife, Jackey G. Dunn Wiggins, was a sister of William Dunn, who was enumerated in Richard’s household in the 1850 census. The Wiggins plantation was located near the southeastern quadrant of the Martin Road and Wall-Triana Highway intersection. William Dunn must have initially lived in the first depot, or he may have built a small house nearby from the time the railroad began operations through Madison (around 1856), because it was 1869 before he purchased the lot where his last house was known to be. Dunn had purchased Lot 19 in January 1860, so he may have lived there for a time. He eventually owned Lots 19—24 and 26-28 before his passing in 1871. During the Civil War, Dunn had a “movie-theme” experience. According to the 1913 special edition of the Huntsville Weekly Mercury newspaper that related the history of Madison, when the federal army first occupied Huntsville and wanted to go by rail to Decatur, they feared sabotage and attacks along the way. When they reached Madison, which was not yet occupied by Union troops, they took Dr. Dunn and tied him to the front of a flatcar placed ahead of the engine. The theory was that if a derailment or an attack came, he would be the first to suffer. The federals also suspected that Dunn had information that he would not tell. It turned out that the tracks were sabotaged, and the federals were fired upon as they reached Beaver Dam Creek, west of Madison. When the car with hostage Dunn left the tracks, he became dislodged from his bindings and fell into some bushes, where he hid until after the ensuing skirmish. The Union forces found him frightened but unhurt. Soon thereafter, Madison itself was occupied by Union forces, during which time there was no post office, and only the federal supply store was allowed to operate in the town. O f course, the men who owned the other stores were all gone to serve in the Confederate military. Growth and commerce in Madison were halted during the war, but they quickly returned at the end of hostilities. Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 37

Deed, Clemens to Martin, including “Free Papers” 38 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

In 1871, just weeks before his death, W il­ liam Dunn also sold Lot 23 to the same Bettie Turner for use “during her lifetime,” per Deed Book RR, page 584. Alter Turner’s death, in December 1901 Mrs. Annie E. Wiggins Sand­ ers filed a copy of Turner’s last will and testa­ ment with the probate court. The filing showed that Turner had died with no heirs or next of kin and that she lelt all her property “of any kind” to Mrs. Sanders. The original of her will had been given to Dr. Isaac F. Deloney lor safekeeping, but he had moved to Leighton in Lawrence County and misplaced the will, accord­ ing to his testimony. The copy held by Sanders was attested by her uncle, Dr. William Dunn (before his death), and by Dr. A. S. Harris of Madison. Thereby, Lots 23 and 24 began a new series of ownerships, becoming the prop­ erty of Matthew Harvey Anderson soon after Turner’s death. Harvey Anderson was one of the direc­ tors of the Bank of Madison, founded in 1904. He also was a principal partner ol Anderson— Bronaugh & Company as well as the Hertzler— Anderson Company. Both businesses were general stores, which sold groceries and other merchandise, according to the 1905 Alabama Merchantile book listings, which showed twelve such stores in the town. Harvey and his wife, Annie Hertzler Anderson, were both from Ohio with Pennsylvania roots. In fact, Annie’s father, T op: Deed, Dunn to Turner; Dr. John Hertzler, also came to Madison from 1868 Ohio after the Civil War. After constructing a large house on the lot along Front Street, the Andersons B o tto m : Deed, Dunn to sold it by 1926 to Dr. James Allen Kyser. Dr. Kyser was recognized by the U.S. Turner; continued government for helping to bring the 1918-9 flu epidemic under control in north Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 39

Deed, Dunn to Turner, Lot 23, 1871 40 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Alabama. Kyser lived in the house for nearly fifty years, and then it was purchased by Billy J. and Nancy Jane Jones of Huntsville. In 1997, the collapsing and abandoned old house was purchased at auction by Tony and Cindy Sensen berger. They lovingly restored and expanded it, keeping as much of the original structure as possible. Today the house has even surpassed its former glory. 19 (Front Street This was the location of the last home of William Dunn, first stationmaster in Madison. He purchased Lots 20, 21, 22, and 23 in November 1869 from the Clemens estate. The house sits primarily on Lot 21, but Dunn’s house is not what meets the eye today. His single-story house was moved back and turned ninety degrees to face west after James Edward Williams bought the property in 1904. It was moved so that Jim and Mattie Whitworth Williams could add new construction attached to the Dunn house, incorporating it into a much larger, two-story building with six chimneys and nine fireplaces. This home became one of the largest houses in Madison and is still quite impressive. Jim Williams’ life epitomizes a “rags to riches” story. He began his adult life as a sharecropper in 1883 on the farm of Madison’s Dr. Wilsev F. Pride. He worked hard and saved enough money from good crops to buy 180 acres for himself in 1892. By 1896 he had purchased 640 more acres. In the 1900 census, T op: Anderson-Kyser House Jim and Mattie Williams were enumerated in the Triana district, but they moved to Madison soon afterward. Williams purchased sawmill equipment and used it A bove: Dr. James Allen Kyser to convert timber from his land into lumber to supply the growing town. With the money from lumber sales, he purchased more land, repeating the cycle and hiring Bottom Left: Jim and Mattie more workers to clear the timber from his new land, converting it to fertile farm Williams at home acreage and sawing the harvested timber into more lumber. Because he could Bottom Right: Dunn-Williams offer workers full-time, year-round employment (farming in the summer, cutting House timber and lumber in the winter), Jim Williams had his pick of the most industrious Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 41

workers in the area. He became a prominent landowner and businessman of the Jim Williams’ store on Main town, investing in a livery stable, a general store, and even a telephone company Street, (L-R:) Pryor Bailey Farley, Tillman Williams Sr., in M adison by 1919. It was reported in 1913 that Jim W illiam s owned four farms Jim Williams totaling about nineteen hundred acres and that he was continually adding more land to his holdings. He raised cattle and other livestock on his land, offering fresh meats at lowest prices in his store. H is store also sold farm implements and employed other Madison notables such as Tom Carter and Arthur Holding Lewis, who later operated a store of his own in the Jim Williams store building. The 1920 census showed living in the home were Jim (age fifty-one) and M attie (age forty-six) with a household that included M ildred Whitworth (Jim’s mother-in-law, at age seventy-six), three children ( Jesse Tillman, seventeen; Willie K., sixteen; and Mattie L., thirteen), two nephews (Howard W. Dublin, nineteen, who later became a mayor of Madison, plus his brother, Clyde H . D ub­ lin, twenty-one, who is the namesake of Dublin Park), and a black servant, Sarah Kelley, forty-nine, widowed. Their neighbors along Front Street included John M . Burton, Dr. Luther L. Wikle, Frank G. Hertzler, County Commissioner J. T. Clift, William T. Pride, and Eugene J. Collier. The Williams house passed to Jim’s daughter, Willie Kate, who married Nolan Drake. Their son, Billy Nolan Drake, inherited the house next, and it was sold in 1972 to Neil and Kay Chatterton. They sold it in 1978 to Gary and Pat Brown. In 2005 Patrick and Tamara Kannapel purchased this house that incor­ porates stationmaster William Dunn’s domicile. 42 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

21 Front Street The home at this address was built early in the 1900s by John Mullins Burton, owner of Burton’s Drugstore. The family drugstore was opened in 1871 by his father, John Winston Burton. It was located at the site of Hughes Hardware at 214—216 M ain Street, where Church Street ends on the south side of the railroad tracks. In 1903 John M ul­ lins Burton bought his father’s business and took George Washington Wise into partnership. Volume 31, page 426, of the Madison County Marriage Index shows that Burton’s daughter, Frances (“Fannie”) East Burton, married Thomas L. Bradford July 4, 1906. The 1920 census shows the household of John M . Burton (age fifty-five) with wife, Nina (age fifty-five), and daughter, Fannie B. “Cambell,” age thirty-one, born in Tennessee and divorced. H er daughters, Juanita (twelve), and Emma L. (ten) Bradford, were also shown as residing in their grandfather’s house. By 1924 Fannie owned the house and became a Madison reporter with a weekly column in the Huntsville Times newspaper. According to her tombstone in the new section of the Madison City Cemetery on Mill Road near Hughes Road, Fan­ nie B. Bradford (not “Cambell”) was born in 1889 and died in 1975. However, in 1952 the house was sold to Carl Allen Williams, brother of James Tillman Williams Jr. and grandson of James Edward Wil­ liams. In 1965 it was sold to W illiam G. G reen, and the owner in 1977 was Dennis Opheim. The rock that marked the basis point for the plats laid out by James Clemens north of the railroad can still be seen at the southeastern corner of the lot, beside Buttermilk Alley. This rock is noted on the Clemens plat recorded in Madison County Deed Book QQ, page 14.

Top : John Mullins Burton house

Middle: Burton & Wise Pharmacy, circa 1903. (Short man in middle believed to be John Mullins Burton)

B o tto m : Home of Thomas Logan Bradford and wife, Fannie Burton, at 306 Church Street; daughter Juanita on steps, circa 1910.

R ight: Burton Drugstore. (Thomas Bradford and Sam Balch noted as in this photo, others unidentified) Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 43

23 Front Street This address corresponds to Lot 15 of the original town plat. It was first purchased by Thomas Clay, bro­ ther of Andrew and Theodorick Clay. The purchase was executed by Thomas as trustee for his wife, Sarah, and her children. The 1860 census showed Thomas at age forty, born in Virginia, as head ol household 15 in the new town of Madison Station. Sarah was listed as age thirty-six. Their children in the household included Henry, Oliver P., Fannie, Edward, John G., and an unnamed infant. The valuation of Thomas’ real estate was given as $8,000 and his personal property as $7,000. H is brother, Theodorick (thirty-two, born in Virginia), was shown as head of adjacent household 16, with real estate valued at $4,000 and personal property at $4,000. Theodorick’s wife, Jane, was twenty-eight, and they had two children in the household. Thomas Clay was not only the second person to buy a lot in the town, but also postmaster 1857-60, operating the postal service from his store­ house on Front Street, immediately behind the railroad depot. T op : William Binford William Binford Humphrey, a Madison merchant who had a combined gen­ Humphrey home eral merchandise and furniture store on M ain Street, lived in the house at 23 Front Street for a number of years. His family included connection to the Sparkman B o tto m : William Binford family that now owns the Sparkman Marble & Granite Works in Huntsville. Humphrey and wife, Nancy A photo (page 44) of Madison streets was made by Robert E. Sparkman in Wade Parham, 1937 M arch 1952 from the upstairs dormer window of the Humphrey home. The long- B elow : Original William B. building on the left is the Southern Railroad depot. The ice house is to the right. Humphrey store at 112 Main The pickup truck belonged to H. N. Parham. The Buick at the left of center Street, later moved toward Mar­ was Marvin Drake’s. Robert E. Sparkman owned the Ford, next toward the tin Street, where it was used as right, and the last car on the right was Clint Lanier’s. The photo and these iden­ a garage operated in partnership by “Bennie ” Humphrey and his tifications were provided by Robert W. Sparkman of Fairfax, Virginia, grandson brother, Hermon. A replacement of William Binford Humphrey and nephew of Annie Mae Humphrey Drake. merchantile store was built on That portion of Main Street hidden by the depot in the 1952 scene can be some­ Main Street. Men in the photo what indicated by a postcard image from the 1920 or 1930 era. have not been identified. The Humphreys of Madison are closely connected with the Burwells of Limestone County, and they intermarried with the local Lewis family, who have ancestry of Presi­ dent George Washington and other national and international notables in their lineage. Rodney Whatley and Lynda Beasley pur­ chased the home in 1999 and are continuing to update both the house and the landscap­ ing while preserving the historical features of the place. 44 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Madison Street, 1952

Circa 1920—30 Main Street Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 45

25 Front Street Lot 14 was purchased from James Clemens via the same deed as Lot 15 by Thomas Clay, acting as trustee for his wife and children. Today the home on this site is owned by Dennis and Joyce Vaughn, who moved into the house in 1983. The current house was built by Frank Hertzler, a son of Dr. John Hertzler, who came here from Ohio after the Civil War with his son-in-law, Harvey Anderson. Historical society publications state that Hertzler constructed the house in 1905, but he may have resided on the lot before 1900 in an earlier dwelling, since he is listed in the census of 1900 among families known to have lived along Front Street. Historical society publications also state that the “Collier family” lived in the house at 25 Front Street after H ertz­ ler built it and that the Colliers sold it to Frank and Annie Mae Bronaugh Finney in the 1930s. The 1930 census has a margin notation to show thirteen households along Front Street. Those households were enumerated begin­ ning with James Williams, who lived at 19 Front Street from 1904. (This leaves a question about the Anderson house at 17 Front Street not being included in the 1930 census. The Anderson house was sold in Frank G. Hertzler House 1926 to Dr. James Kyser, who owned it fo r about fifty years, but he was enumerated in 1930 as living on M artin Street and not in his new home on Front Street.) T he 1930 census listing for Front Street then continued to the east with Nolan Drake in the Williams dwelling as a renter. Next were Fannie Bradford, Nancy B. Parham (as a renter in the Bradford house), Edward L. Collier, James F. Burnam, William B. Humphrey, Hezekiah N. Parham, Vida B. Wann, Lemuel E. Collier, Woodie L. Collier, Porter F. Florence, and Arthur P. Pride. Seven of the households along Front Street were owned, while six were rented, either within or separated from the main house on the lots. It is likely that the Florence and Pride families were occupying houses located on Lot 53. It was reported in historical society publi­ cations that the Robbins family and the Kurtz family owned the house at 25 Front Street after the Finneys and before the Vaughns, who own it now. Humphrey-Cain-Steadman house 14, 15, and 18 _Arnett Street The large and impressive house at 18 Arnett Street was begun in the 1880s by Fla­ vins J. Humphrey, whose wife was Ann Rus­ sell. The 1860 census of Madison County shows him at age seven in Meridianville with a brother, James E. Humphrey, at age four. His father was farmer Edmond Humphrey (born in Virginia), a son of David Humphrey and Sarah Blankenship, who lived north of Winchester Road on the east side of Memorial Parkway. Edmond’s wife was Lucy Doug­ lass, a daughter of John Douglass of Jackson 46 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Lanford-Slaughter-Camper County. In the 1870 census, Flavins and James were enumerated in the Lime­ Mansion, in snow. (Photo stone County household of their uncle, James Humphrey, whose wife was Mary from Heritage Room files of the Ann Douglass. The 1870 James Humphrey household included sons John, Wil­ H untsville-Madison County lie, and James (cousins of Flavins). In 1880 James Humphrey was enumerated Public Library, courtesy of Ranee Pruitt.) in Madison with the same sons and other children. Flavins Humphrey was not found in the 1880 census and died leaving record of only one child, Minnie, who married a Maulsby, according to family research by Robert E. Sparkman. James Henry Cain purchased the house in 1905 and enlarged the dwell­ ing, probably because his wife was Lottie T. Slaughter, daughter of Dr. John R. Slaughter and Mary Lanford. Therefore, Lottie had grown up in the Lanford- Slaughter mansion that is just north ol Old Madison Pike on the east bank of Indian Creek. Cain also built two houses for his son, John Slaughter Cain, at John Slaughter Cain house 14 and 15 Arnett Street. The house at 14 Arnett was built in 1927 as the hon­ eymoon house for John and his bride, Lucille. In 1931 the twin house to 14 Arnett was built at 15 Arnett, and Roy Stone lived there until 1938, after which the John Cain family occupied it until 1981. Roy Stone was chairm an o f the M adison County commissioners, and Huntsville’s Stone Middle School is named for him. The houses at 14 and 15 Arnett no longer appear to be twins, as their “street faces” have been modified through the years. Today’s owners of Jim Cain’s house at 18 Arnett (former restaurateurs Stan and Jeanne Steadman) have added a sunroom at the back of the house, but the front face still appears as it did in 1905. Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 47

Jim Cain was a brother of Robert Parham Cain, and they were both mer­ chants in Madison, even though in 1900 the census showed the occupation of Jim as “farmer.” Subsequent censuses showed him as a dry goods merchant and grocer. Jim Cain was listed as age forty-eight in the 1920 census, whereas Rob­ ert P. Cain was listed as age fifty-three. That census showed the households of Jim Cain, Robert P. Cain, James L. Humphrey (age fifty-three), and Robert E. Cain (age twenty-eight) in sequence, adjacent to one another. Robert Parham Cain was the father of Robert E. Cain, and John Longstreet Humphrey (first cousin of Flavins Humphrey) was a brother-in-law of Robert P. Cain, since he married Lizzie Cain in 1894. Moreover, John M ullins Burton, the Madison pharmacist, married Mollie Cain in 1881 and was a cousin to Jim Cain. Even the Halsey family was connected to the Cains when Wil­ liam J. Halsey married Martha Ann Cain in Madison County in 1840. Robert E. Cain twice suffered great tragedy when his wife was killed by a train at the rail crossing in town and when his son, Robert E. Jr., drowned in a cistern behind the family store a few years later. The Cains were also connected to the Rankins of Decatur when James L. Rankin of the insur­ ance business married Ivey Cain. Ivey was a sister of Robert E. Cain and daughter of Robert P. Cain and his wife, Lena, who was a child of E. T. Martin. James and Ivey had no children of their own, but they raised two foster children, one of whom was Annie Sue Cain, Ivey’s niece, whose mother had Cain-Stone House died. Obviously, the extended family connected to 18 Arnett Street experienced their share of tragic circumstances as well as having a background of prominence and prosperity. 20 A rnett Street The prefabricated house at this address was bought from Sears & Roebuck and assembled in 1910 by William L. Hafley while he operated the Hafley House Hotel in Madison. By the time of the 1920 census, at age seventy, his occupa­ tion was listed as “merchant.” William was not listed in the 1930 census, but his daughter, Ellie (age forty-four), was shown with the occupation of “grocery store merchant.” William Hafley sold the house at 20 Arnett Street in 1917 to Eliza­ beth Cain Humphrey, wife of John Longstreet Humphrey and daughter of Thomas Cain. The house was later inherited by Kathleen Humphrey Apperson, wife of Charles Ford Apperson Sr. Charles and Kathleen were married in 1919 and appeared in the 1920 Triana census district on a farm. Charles was a son of James C. Apperson, who was born in 1860 Virginia of Virginia-born parents. James’ wife, Maria, was born in 1862 in West Virginia, but her father was born in Maine and her mother in Ireland. James and Maria lived in Kansas, where their sons, Jediah W. and Charles F., were born in 1887 and 1889, respectively. They lived in Missouri in the 1890s and early 1900s, where daughter, Dorothy, was born in 1894. The 1910 census shows the family living in Huntsville and owning a dairy. July 1914 must have been a very hot month because the Apperson Ice Cream Company recovered at that time a $50 court judgment against Fred O. Camper, who was born in Madison, a son, Benjamin Franklin Camper, and his wife, Permelia McCrary. Fred lived in the southeastern part of the county in 48 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

the early 1900s. The family of James Apperson with his wife and daughter were living in Madison at the time of the 1920 census, while son, Charles, was living with Kathleen closer to Triana. James was living in Madison five houses away from Joseph Pruett and William Wann, enumerated between Henry Martin and Stephen Gates. James’ occupation was shown as “farmer.” His son, Charles Apperson, served as mayor of Madison 1949-57. In the 1930 census, Charles and Kathleen Apperson were listed as living on Maple Street. Next door were listed Frank (age fifty) and M arthy A. Bran­ don (age fifty-two), a black couple who operated a funeral home. The 1930 App­ erson family included Bettie, Dora, Charles F. (Jr.), and Kathleen. Kathleen grew up being called “Naneen,” and she married Doward Williams. Naneen Hafley-Apperson-Brown House taught school at Madison Elementary, and Doward was a carpenter. They inher­ ited the house at 20 Arnett Street and raised their family at that location, keep­ ing the house until 1986. It was purchased at that time by Merry Lane Strain, who in 1989 sold it to M rs. Pat Brown. Jeff Brown, her son, lived in the house on the west side of the north end ol Buttermilk Alley with his family from 1993 until recently. Charles Apperson Jr. now lives in a large house that he had constructed at the junction of Brown’s Ferry Road and Sullivan Street. His sister, Dora Cain Apperson Tuck, wife of Marcus Tuck, is a frequent visitor in the new house, and their memories of the “old days” have been recorded in the Oral History Series of the Madison Memories Collection CD-ROMs offered by the Madison Station Historical Society. Likewise, the recollections of Naneen Apperson Wil­ liams have been recorded and placed in the Oral History Series. 154 Maple Street Built sometime before the late 1850s, the original structure faced the railroad. The Lanier Family has owned the house generation after generation since the late Lanier House, facing railroad 1800s through today. John Ford Lanier is known to be the first Lanier to own this home. He married Ada Elizabeth Johnson in October 1881, and the)' raised six children. John Lanier was shot and killed in 1900 in the line of duty as deputy sheriff (“revenue collector,” per the 1900 census). Ada lived nine more years, and they are bur­ ied in the Lanier section of Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville. One of their sons, David Shelby Lanier, was the next owner of the house, occupying it until his death in 1963. He married Mary Bradford, and they had two sons, David Shelby Lanier Jr. and John Logan Lanier. John Logan Lanier grew up in the Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 49

house on Maple Street and then made his home on M artin Street, directly across 310 Martin Street, home of the railroad tracks in the house that E. T. Martin had owned. The three children E. T. Martin and John Logan of John Logan Lanier and Kathryn Watley lived next door to one another: David Lanier S. Lanier (III) and his wife, Lou Ann Beard, lived at 154 Maple Street, while John Logan Lanier Jr. and Mary Margaret Lanier Frost Long lived in homes south of the railroad tracks. The Lanier family history in Madison County epitomizes the transition from the old Southern plantation system to the post—Civil War era. The Lanier family that settled in the area from the early 1800s has been traced back for centuries. They are direct descendants from the great-grandfather ol George Washington. The Laniers, from the time of Queen Elizabeth in England, were noted for their love of the fine arts. The family produced a famous American poet-writer-musi- cian-lawyer, Sidney Lanier (1842—81), from the state of Georgia who lived tor a time in Alabama. The Lanier families of Alabama had ancestral connections with the Colonial Dickson and Gillespie families, including local connections with the Jordan, Fennell, and Pope families, who were prominent pioneers of Madison County and the town of Huntsville. In the late 1600s, some Lanier Huguenots living in the southern part of France fled persecution to reside in Wales. According to information collected from family members in the 1800s plus Lanier publications from around 1900, Thomas Lanier left Wales with other Huguenots and a company of English emi­ grants to settle in Powhatan County, Colony of Virginia. They established homes near what is now Richmond, within the sixty-four-thousand-acre “Crown Lands” granted by William and Mary to Henry Harris and John Jourden in 1691. H ar­ ris and Jordan families were thereafter intermingled with Laniers throughout our nation’s history. Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

Much of the information about this family was derived from a book titled Laniers by Laura Ingersoll. According to this book, sometime after his arrival in Virginia, Thomas Lanier married Elizabeth Washington, a daughter of John Washington, who was the paternal great-grandfather of Gen. George Washing­ ton. John Washington’s wife was Annie Pope. However, it should be noted that some other sources show that it was John Lanier who married Elizabeth Wash­ ington and was the progenitor of the Laniers who came to Madison County. Another published work shows that Sampson Lanier, born in 1682, married Elizabeth Washington, daughter of Richard Washington and his wife, Eliza­ beth Jordan. Either way, Lanier family history is intertwined with that of George Washington and other historical persons of Colonial Virginia. All sources agree that the Sampson Lanier (born about 1712 in Virginia) who was a son of Elizabeth Washington Lanier and her husband married Elizabeth Chamberlain in Virginia and had six children, including a son named Burwell. The family lived in Virginia, but some of their children later lived in North Caro­ lina and Tennessee before reaching Alabama and other states. Burwell Lanier had at least eleven children, among them being sons William, Thomas, and Isaac. These three sons of Burwell were the first owners of large tracts of land that became portions of Redstone Arsenal in Madison County. William was a Meth­ odist preacher and Revolutionary War patriot. His grave is marked in a cemetery on Redstone Arsenal. Thomas left the area, but Isaac stayed, and his grandsons were the Laniers who moved into the town of Madison. Isaac is buried in another cemetery on the arsenal. Isaac was born in North Carolina and married Arabella Clinton there. She was a daughter of Richard Clinton, a Baptist minister— and it may be that this is the line for which Clinton Avenue in Huntsville is named, since it is an old name for the street from long before the forty-second president of the United States took office. Isaac and Arabella lived in Sampson County, North Carolina, where they had three children. These children were Burwell Clinton Lanier, Isaac Hill Lanier, and Arabella Lanier. Arabella and Isaac Hill Lanier were twins, born in 1792. It was soon after their birth that their mother died, and Isaac moved his family to Anson County, North Carolina, where the senior Isaac’s brothers, William and Thomas, also lived before they came to Madison County, Alabama. After Arabella’s death, Isaac married Mary Dickson (a daughter of William Dickson), by whom he had four more children, who were also pioneers of Red­ stone Arsenal lands. Isaac’s son, Burwell Clinton Lanier, married Mary Shelby McCrabb in 1814 and moved to the town ofjackson in Madison County, Tennessee. Burwell moved from Jackson, Tennessee, to Madison County, Alabama, before 1820, where he died that year, soon after his arrival in northern Alabama. His Lanier family cemetery is on the plantation operated by Burwell’s widow and her three sons: Isaac Alexander (1816-94), William H. (1818-95), and Burwell Clin­ ton (1820—95). Widow Mary Lanier died in 1853, per her tombstone. All three sons lived on the plantation, sharing ownership throughout their lives. Appar­ ently, late in life and after the Civil War, William and Burwell Lanier moved off the plantation and into nearby towns. William is buried in Huntsville’s Maple Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 51

Hill Cemetery, and Burwell is known to have lived from 1887 in the town of Madison, yet he is buried in the fam­ ily cemetery on the plantation. It is also documented that Isaac Alexander Lanier died in the home of his brother, Burwell, in Madison. The Lanier family cemetery on the arsenal includes the grave of Burwell Clinton Lanier’s mother-in-law, Lou­ isa Shelby McCrabb (1767-1846). According to www. ancestry.com postings, she was the daughter of John Shelby (born in 1725 Maryland; died in 1794 Washing­ ton County, Virginia) and his wife, Louisa Looney (born in 1728, Isle of Mann). Louisa Looney was a sister of Absalom Looney I, who was born in 1729 in Ireland and died in 1791 in Virginia. Her father was Robert Looney, who operated “Looney’s Top: Looney’s Landing Mill” in Augusta County, Virginia. Absalom Looney II, a Revolutionary War mentioned in 1832 Indian soldier who in 1783 served as a surveyor with Isaac Shelby and Anthony Bledsoe, Creek Canal ad came to Madison County in 1809. His children included another Absalom (III) Bottom : Lanier Cemetery, and John Warren Looney. They bought land adjacent to the Laniers and Louisa, Redstone Arsenal, January 2003 their great-aunt. John Looney until 1834 operated “Looney’s Mill,” just barely Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

over a mile to the west of the Lanier Cemetery, where Louisa is buried. This mill was on the west side of the junction of what today is known as Huntsville Spring Branch with Indian Creek. The property and the mill were purchased by Thomas Fearn and others of the consortium that was formed in Huntsville to create the Indian Creek Canal. This canal was operated in the 1830s under the name of the Indian Creek Navigation Company to carry cotton from Big Spring in Huntsville to the Tennessee River for shipment downriver to markets in New Orleans. The canal played a large part in the growth and prosperity of Triana, the town that was later almost abandoned as its citizens moved to populate the new railroad town of Madison Station. One of John Looney’s descendants, Frank Looney of Limestone County, was chief of the test stand design section for NASA’s rocket programs in Huntsville, working with Wernher Von Braun and Bernard Tessman of the Peenemunde team. Frank’s ancestry included Hezekiah Cartwright plus Martha Bailey, a daughter of James F. Bailey of Madison, and Frank maintained the Bailey Cemetery on Mill Road for many years. Memoirs and notes compiled before 1910 by Felix Robertson Lanier, born in 1829, include descriptions of each of Burwell Clinton Lanier’s sons, who co-owned the plantation near Madison and adjacent to the Looney land. Felix traveled exten­ sively during and after the Civil War to meet most of his relatives. H e described his first cousin, Isaac Alexander Lanier, as given below. (Commentary and explanations are inserted within {} by John Rankin.)

A few years later {after 1816}, his parents {Burwell C. and M ary S. Lanier} moved to Madison County, Alabama, where he was reared, educated, and resided the balance of his days. Alex Lanier, as he was called by his companions and intimate friends, was a successful cotton planter until the Civil War destroyed his business. As a joint owner with his two brothers, he resided on their plantation, devoting his energy and skill in aiding in the management. He was a genial companion, popular in the county, and when a young man, represented it in the State Legislature. Though pronounced in his politi­ cal opinions, he preferred the quiet life of a planter to that of a political promoter. In 1861, Alex Lanier enlisted as a pri­ vate soldier in the Fourth Alabama Regiment of Infantry to serve in the Confederate army and was on its organization elected a Lieutenant of his company. This Regiment became one of the most gallant and famous in the Confederate Army. It was conspicuous in the Battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861, where the Federal Army was routed and driven back, a ter­ rified mob, to Washington. In this engagement Lieutenant Lanier was severely wounded and disabled from further ser­ vice. Alexander was never married. Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 53

{About William H. Lanier, Felix wrote-) Halsey Grocery Warehouse William H. was the second son of Burwell Clinton and in Madison Mary Shelby Lanier, born in the state of Tennessee {in Jack­ son, Madison Co. TN} the 17th day of August, 1818. Reared in Madison County, Alabama, where he was educated, mar­ ried, and spent a long, useful life as a cotton planter on a large plantation some ten or twelve miles from Huntsville, on which he resided in a commodious residence, where he reared a large family. On the 9th day of January, 1855, Wil­ liam H. Lanier married Miss Marena Jane Saluter Ford, of Madison County. She was a sister of the wife of his brother Burwell Clinton {Lanier}. They had several children, to-wit: Laura Celest, born November 7th, 1855; married Mr. Wil­ liam L. Halsey {progenitor of the fam ed grocers line o f that name, with a major operation in Madison}, April 21st, 1880. M ary Shelby (Mollie), born April 6th, 1858, married Mr. Thomas J. Young on the 16th day of October, 1884. Rena Roper, born on the 3rd day of November, 1860, married Mr. Archie Rison, September 20th, 1880. William H., born in 1863. Lucy Corinne, born February 2nd, 1867, married Mr. Thomas H. G ilbert, December 30th, 1889. Birdie W illiam etta, born October 11th, 1872, married M r. Joe Nix, July 9th, 1890. M ary Shelby (Mollie) died____of June, 1887, and William H. {son o f William H . and M arena} died in 1865. M arena Ford, wife of William H. Lanier died on the 13th day of Novem­ ber, 1886. {Her husband} William H. Lanier died in Hunts­ ville, Alabama, on the 8th of April, 1895 {and was buried in Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville}. 54 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

{About the third son of Harwell Clinton Lanier, Felix wrote-) “Burwell Clinton, the third son of Burwell C. and Mary Shelby Lanier, was born on the 5th day of October, 1820. Soon after, his parents moved to Madison County, Alabama. {Other accounts show that he was born in Madison County, A la­ bama.} They had settled on a large tract of land near Triana. His father died the first of the year {March 31, 1820, per most accounts found} after their arrival at their new home, leav­ ing his estate to his widow and three sons, who continued to reside on the lands and succeeded in clearing up a large plantation.” “Burwell and his brothers were sent by their Mother to the best schools and their bright minds enabled them to qual­ ify themselves for the high social position they held through their long lives. Alabama was a new State when their parents moved to it. The Indians had but recently been removed. Courage and self-denial were requisite qualities for success, and these three boys, to an eminent degree possessed them, and they and their companions and neighbors succeeded in clearing off the forest and changing the wilderness to its sub­ sequent attractiveness and the homes of the brave, generous, and cultivated people. The foundation of the present beauty and civilization of Madison County was laid by these pio­ neers and is maintained by their descendants.” “These three brothers were tall, erect, and splendid spec­ imens of manhood, with genial and attractive manners, by which they gained and held many friends. Burwell Clinton married Miss Laura Prudence America Ford of Madison County, on the 26th day of May, 1853, a member of a promi­ nent family, a cultivated, attractive, Christian woman, who died in Huntsville, Ala., July 16th, 1908, at the age of 73 years.” “There were ten children born to this couple, to-wit: [1] Burwell Clinton, the third, born June 14th, 1854, married Miss M attie C. Ashford, on the 18th day of January, 1881. They had two children, Isaac Alexander Lanier, Jr., born September 17th, 1881, and died M arch 1896, and Joseph B. Lanier, born May 1884, died February, 1907. Burwell Clin­ ton Lanier, the third, died from yellow fever at Decatur, Oct. 23, 1888.” [2] “John Ford {Lanier}, born February 5th, 1857, mar­ ried Miss Ada Johnson, September 15th, 1881. {In 1886 Ada E. Johnson Lanier inherited land in the town of Madison, Madi­ son County, Alabama, from her deceased father in Illinois, per Madison Co. A L Deed Book M M M , page 5.} The children of John Ford and Ada Lanier are: John Fulton, born December, 22nd, 1882; Katherine Elizabeth, born 1st day of December, Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 55

1884, married Mr. Ortis Green of Madison County, April 1904; David Shelby Lanier, born 15th day of September, 1887 - he became a Mayor of Madison for 6 terms; Burwell Clin­ ton Lanier (1890-1964); Ada Lorena Lanier (1891-1985); and Elsie Lanier (born April 1896). John Ford Lanier died in Huntsville, Alabama, December 23rd, 1900.” [3] “Isaac Alexander, son of Burwell C. and Laura Pru­ dence Lanier, was born August 9th, 1859, died September 2nd, 1879. [4] William Henry Jr., born October 22nd, 1861, died October 23, 1864. [5] Helen Virginia, born March 19th, 1864, married M r. J. R. M artin, December 1st, 1886. Died Aug. 3rd, 1894. They had no children. [6] Fulton Clement Lanier, born February 3rd, 1867, died M ay 3rd, 1881. [7] Mary Lucilla, born February 11th, 1870, married Rev. Joseph W. Caldwell, April 26th, 1893. [8] Laura Prudence, born October 5, 1872, mar­ ried M r. John Robert W ynn, O ctober 3, 1894. They have one child, Helen Lanier Wynn, born November 15, 1895. [9] Alice Louisa Lanier, born January 15th,

1875. [10] Milton Harris Lanier, born July 28th, 1878, mar­ 1955 dedication of third City ried Miss Annie Newman Troy, September 2nd, 1909. They Hall, now Main Street Cafe. have one child, M argaret Troy, born November 16th, 1910.” (L-R) Police Chief A. V. Kay, {They had another child, Milton Harris Jr., after the account was Commissioner Caudis H. Trib­ ble, Builder Redus H. Riddle, written by Felix Lanier. Milton IT. Lanier Sr. was admitted to City Attorney M. H. “Pete” the Bar in Alabama in 1899. He served terms as city attorney, city Lanier, Mayor Howard Dublin, commissioner, and mayor o f Huntsville. Madison's town lawyer in Baptist Preacher R. W. Thomp­ the 1950s was a later Milton H. Lanier} son, Methodist Preacher Guy E. “Burwell Clinton Lanier, the second, died at his residence Wallace, Water Department in Madison, Madison County, Alabama, September 1st, 1895.” Supervisor W. C. “Bill” Gil­ lespie, Commissioner Charles I.' {Burwell C. Lanier purchased land in the town o f Madison in Apperson Sr., City Clerk Robert E. 1887. He moved perhaps to live in his old age near his son, John, “Pud” True. who married Ada Johnson. The land that he purchased had been owned by James Bibb and lay immediately west of the original Madison town boundaries. This land today is bounded on the south by Palmer Road, on the north by M ill Road, and on the east by Sullivan Street. It nearly reached M ill Creek on the west, and the tracts included the location of the Bibb House on Allen Street in Madison.} Felix Lanier further wrote of this family that “The disas­ trous result of the {Civil} war left the three brothers {Isaac Alexander, William H., and Burwell Clinton Lanier} financially distressed. Past middle age, they were unable to recover their losses and chose rather to strive to retain the remnant than to enter into competition with those more skilled with free labor. The three brothers had held their property almost through life in common, as partners residing on the same plantation 56 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

when called to their last home. They passed away in less than a year in the order of their birth. Isaac Alexander Lanier died on the 28th day of December, 1894, at the residence of his youngest brother, Burwell Clinton Lanier, at Madison, Alabama.”

The plantation style of living, of course, became obsolete after the freeing of the slaves that had made it possible. The Lanier family story is one of great prominence and wealth under the slave-based culture of the old South, which could not be maintained after the Civil War. Still, the family connections, edu­ cation, and social prominence of the Laniers held seeds for accomplishments of their descendants under the free enterprise system. Descendants of the Civil War generation of Laniers went on to become lawyers, city and state officials, and prominent members of their communities.

301 Church Street The house was built in 1910 by Thomas G. Riddle, principal of Madison School on College Street when the school was a two-story wooden building. His son, Harry, owned the home next door at 303 Church Street. They were also in business on Main Street at the Bank of Madison, but in the 1920 census, where they were listed as heads of adjacent households, only Harry was shown with a banking occupation. Thomas was recorded then as a farmer. In the 1920s, the Riddles left town (Harry appeared in the 1930 census of Jefferson County, Ala­ bama), and the house was sold to Mrs. Merts from Huntsville. She rented the 301 Church Street, Riddle- house to others for a while, then sold it to Etta Imogene Abernathy Lewis, wife of Lewis-Hughes-Spencer House Herman A. Lewis but a widow by 1918, according to the death date on Herman’s Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 57

303 Church Street: Harry Riddle, Doc Hughes, Carl Sampieri House

Barbara Hughes Spencer’s Shop

Spencer Family, one hundred years in Madison Schools. (Photo as initially published in the Huntsville Times newspaper and printed in Gladys True’s book Reflections of Madison, 1869—1999.) 58 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

tombstone. Etta Abernathy married Herman (Her mon) A rthur Lewis in 1896. H . A. Lewis was a son of Madison merchant A. H. Lewis, who operated a store at 104 M ain Street. That site later had the store of Jim W illiams, but it burned in 1942. Etta gave birth to Martha “Mattie” Belle Lewis, who mar­ ried Gordon Pelham Hughes in 1918. Etta Lewis was a grandmother of Mattie’s daughter, Barbara Ann Hughes, who married Don Spencer Sr. Bar­ bara had a dress shop at 108 Main Street as late as the 1980s. Barbara and Don were the parents of Don Spencer Jr., who became the first president of the Madison City School Board when city schools separated from the county system in 1998. He had previously served on the City Council and as acting mayor for a time. Arthur Holding Lewis, father of Herman Arthur Lewis, was born October 15, 1848, in Triana, according to the Lewis family Bible. His middle Holding Family monuments, name (sometimes given as “Holden”) was probably chosen in honor of the neigh­ Percy Keel (left) and John boring plantation owner, Richard Holding, whose large monument is in the old Rankin section of the Madison City Cemetery after being moved from the airport during construction in 1984. Arthur H. Lewis was a contemporary of E. T. Martin and Robert Emmett Wiggins, all of whom are buried in the old section of the Madison City Ceme­ tery. Arthur Lewis was a city councilman from 1898 to 1901. In a 1913 newspaper about the town of Madison, Arthur Lewis was described as “ ... among the most cheerful and entertaining gentlemen in all of Madison County.” He was stated to be “ . . . a Methodist Church Steward for over 30 years.” He was an officer of the Order of United American Mechanics, a patriotic society with objectives of supporting public education, assuring Bible readings in the schools, and limiting immigration to protect American jobs. Arthur Lewis married Martha “Mattie” Cartwright in Limestone County in 1873. She was the ninth child of Hezekiah Bradley Cartwright. Her mother was Martha Vaughan, whose first husband was Elijah Bailey, making their son, James E. H . Bailey, a half-brother of Arthur Lewis’ wife. Hezekiah Cartwright was a son of John Cartwright, the Madison County E. T. Martin, Arthur H. pioneer mistakenly reported to have been the first settler of Madison. The Cart­ Lewis, and Robert E. Wiggins wright family cemetery with Hezekiah is on Palmer Road, but Hezekiah’s wife, in 1913 Mercury News Martha, is buried in the Madison City Cemetery beside another ot her daugh­ special issue on Madison, ters, “Orrie” Cartwright (who was the eighth child of Hezekiah and sister of described as “pioneers” of the town. Mattie Lewis) and near Orrie’s husband, John T. Lipscomb. John Lipscomb was the first educator in the public schools of Madison. In the 1860 census, he and his wife are shown living next door to his mother, Sarah, wife of Richard Lipscomb from Virginia, who had died in the 1850s on their planta­ tion in the northwestern portion of what is now Redstone Arsenal. The Lipscomb Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 59

households in Madison in 1860 were separated from that of Mary Cartwright (age sixty-two, born in Virginia) by a house containing Sarah Farley and Sarah Trotman. They were also living near Orvil Hundley, Wesley Dublin, Margaret Toney, Samuel Halsey, and Martin Vaughan. When John Lipscomb lived with his parents on arsenal lands, he was only four houses away from that of Burwell Clinton Lanier’s widow, Mary Lanier, and her three sons, Isaac Alexander, William Henry, and Burwell Junior. Arthur Lewis and Mattie Cartwright had five chil­ dren: Herman Arthur Lewis (1874—1918, married Etta Abernathy), Nina Lewis (born about 1875 and married Levi Garrett), Cora Mae Lewis (married James Hermon Humphrey), James Hermon Lewis, and Oscar Bradley Lewis. Arthur H. Lewis was a trustee of the “Madison High School” (reported by some to have been the same as the Madison Training School), incorporated in February 1895. The papers of incorporation list the trustees as A. H . Lewis, J. B. Floyd, C. G. Lipscomb Family Cemetery, Fennel, J. A. Watkins, M. A. Bishop, S. M. Doolittle, and J. A. Humphrey. All Redstone Arsenal. (John T. these men were prominent Madison pioneers, and most of them are known to be Lipscomb buried in Madison City Cemetery) buried in the Madison City Cemetery. (Mr. Bishop is buried in the nearby Far lev-Crutcher Cemetery. It is not known where Mr. Fennel is buried.) The connections of the Madison Lewis family to the lineages of George and Martha Washington are numerous. In his will, the first United States president left property to his nephew, Lawrence Lewis. Through family ties with the line of Martha Washington’s first husband (Daniel Parke Custis), there were marriages that brought Robert E. Lee into the relationships. The Lewis family was among the Colonial settlers of Virginia, holding very large plantations around Charlot­ tesville, where Thomas Jefferson built his own mansion and plantation. It was in Virginia that the name Meriwether became associated with the Lewis family, when Robert Lewis, father of Nicholas Lewis, married a daughter of Nicholas Meriwether. Nicholas Meriwether was a man of enormous wealth and owned an extensive plantation of many thousands of acres in Virginia. The explorer Meri­ wether Lewis married Lucy Meriwether. Meriwether Lewis was a close friend of William Clark long before Thomas Jefferson appointed his own close friend (Meriwether Lewis) to head the exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. Meri­ wether in turn chose his friend, William Clark, a brother of the famous military man George Rogers Clark, to be his second in command on the expedition. Meriwether the explorer was born in 1774 in Virginia and died in 1809 in Ten­ nessee. He was apparently murdered at an inn as he returned along the Natchez Trace to Nashville. The murder of explorer Meriwether Lewis has never been solved, but it is interesting that soon after the explorer’s death, his cousin, James Lewis, settled within about a hundred miles of the route of the Natchez Trace where the explorer traveled. This cousin, James Lewis, married Nancy Watkins, and they named one of their sons Meriwether Anderson Lewis. 60 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

The son that James Lewis named Meriwether was born in Virginia in 1809 (the year of the explorer’s death) and was raised in Triana after the family came here while Meriwether was a child. As an adult, Meriwether Lewis established his own plantation where the Boeing complex is now located between the runways at the south end of the airport between Triana and Madison. Meri­ wether and his wife deeded land for the first Masonic Lodge in Triana in 1854 while it was still a prosperous town on the river. Family tradition holds that Meriwether not only grew cotton, but he transported it to New Orleans on three steamboats that he owned. His son, Arthur H. Lewis, was an amicable store owner, councilman, and farmer, as described in the 1913 newspaper. The immediate ancestry of Arthur, Meriwether, and James Lewis goes back through Nathaniel Lewis, who married Sally Harris and came to Madison County in 1818. Nathaniel’s father was Edward Lewis, who married Frances Bressie in 1763. Edward was a Revolutionary War soldier and is listed in the DAR’s Patriot Index. Another famous Lewis family member was David Lewis, who served as the twenty-fourth governor of the state of Alabama from 1872 to 1874. David is buried in Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville, and his portrait hangs on the wall in the Madi­ son County Courthouse. A nameplate on the portrait states that David was a resident of Madison, but he was generally associated with Lawrence County. He was born about 1819 and died in 1884. The list of prominent connections of the Lewis family could go on at great length, but an abridged list of surnames associated with Madison that intermarried with the Lewis family include Humphrey, Hughes, Balch, Hilliard, Arnett, Hobbs, Reavis, Moon, Graham, Clutts, Strong, Dillard, Top: Mary Frances Humphrey Fletcher, McGaha, Harris, Maxwell, Jordan, Gurley, Clark, Garner, Black­ Crownover Gilbert at grave of burn, and Farrald. Additionally, M ary F. Lewis married John W ithers Clay, son her ancestor Meriwether Lewis of Gov. Clement Comer Clay, whose wife was Susannah Withers. She grew up in Triana Cemetery in the area that became Madison, and her father, John Withers, owned several Bottom: Arthur H. Lewis parcels of land, one of which was along what is now Madison Boulevard, where at his store, in center. Left the Publix store is located. His family burial plot and primary plantation house is Gordon Anderson; right is were located on a hilltop at the south end of Research Park, between today’s Old Everett Watkins. Circa 1910. Madison Pike and Interstate Highway 565. Another of his plantation houses had its own Withers family cemetery, used by later generations. It was west of County Line Road by about a quarter-mile and north of Madison Boulevard by about a half-mile. John Withers’ grandson, John Withers Clay, became longtime editor of the Huntsville Democrat, a historical newspaper of great reputation. As seen from the north Alabama connections alone, the Lewis family of Madison was influential far beyond the boundaries of the town. Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 61

313 Church Street Elizabeth Thornton Watkins and Nancy Kathryn Bryant, granddaughter and great-granddaughter, respectively, of Nancy Hesseltine Gillespie Farley, sub­ mitted a story about “Miss Hessie” that was published in the book The Heritage o f Madison County, Alabama (1998). The house at 313 Church Street was built for her and stands as a monument to her life today, always having been owned by her descendants. As the story referenced above described her, “Miss Hessie” was a well known and respected teacher in Madison. The article further stated that “She was the daughter of Campbell Milton Gillespie, who was born in Blount County, Tennessee on July 10, 1829, and Narcissa Lorinda Clark also born in Tennessee on November 22, 1832. They had eight children: Miss Hessie who was born on July 22, 1866, in Maryville, Tennessee; Samuel and Philander who later became Madison farmers; James who became a doctor in Decatur, Alabama; George who died at the age of 26; John who became a Birmingham doctor; William who sold Florida real estate; and Narcissa Elizabeth who never married and lived with her parents. The Gillespies were prominent landowners in Maryville, from which they moved to Morgan County, Alabama, in 1870. In 1879 they moved to a farm outside of Madison, Alabama.” “Miss Hessie graduated with honors from the Huntsville Female Seminary on M ay 30, 1888 and became a teacher. She married Joseph Bruce Farley on Decem­ ber 7, 1892. They lived in Madison and had one daughter, Frances Lorinda who was born on Decem ber 15, 1893. Tragically, Bruce died of malarial fever on August 23, 1894. Miss Hessie and her brother William owned the Farley and Gillespie Drug Store. It stocked fancy groceries, stationery, hardware as well as medicine. After the Top: “Miss Hessie” (1934) store was sold, Miss Hessie was offered a job teaching in Tuscumbia, Alabama. “On February 7, 1910, C. M. Gillespie died. Narcissa Lorinda Gillespie had Above: Miss Hessie’s House already died on January 26, 1907. Since Miss Hessie’s sister, Miss Nora, couldn’t stay on the farm alone, Miss Hessie and Lorinda moved back to Madison, Ala­ bama in 1911. A house was built at 313 Church Street. The farm was rented to a nephew, Clark Patton Gillespie, who served as a financial adviser to the family. Miss Hessie started teaching first grade in Madison, and Lorinda studied music at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia until 1914. Miss Nora also known as ‘Sister’ kept house for the family. “Lorinda taught music until she married Herbert Lafayette Thornton on January 21, 1920, shortly after he came home from serving in France in World War One. They moved to Selma, Alabama where Herbert worked with his father on their dairy farm. Their first daughter, Frances Farley, was born February 12, 62 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

1921 at Miss Hessie’s home in Madison. Two other daughters were also born in Madison: Nancy Kate on March 16, 1923 and Lorinda Clark on October 24, 1924. Both Elizabeth Sharp, born November 4, 1926, and W illiam Gillespie, born November 11, 1932, were born at home at 918 Oak Street, Decatur, Ala­ bama. Herbert and his brother Maurice operated ‘One-One-One’ Tire Service at 111 First Avenue until Herbert became a charter member of the Alabama Highway Patrol in 1935. “Although a life-long Presbyterian, Miss Hessie taught Sunday School in the Baptist Church and attended church whenever services were held. She was active in school, church, and civic affairs. Since C. M. Gillespie had served in the Civil War, she was eligible to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She was also eligible for the Daughters of the American Revolution as a descendant of Lieutenant William Cowan Gillespie, her grandfather, who served in the Revo­ lutionary War. She belonged to the A.E.A., the N.E.A., the P.T.A., the Eastern Star, the Home Demonstration Club, and the Entre Nous Federated Woman’s Club which she helped to found. “She instilled moral and spiritual values in her family. She enriched the lives of all the children she taught in her forty-two consecutive years of service. She loved to teach and dreaded the day she would have to retire. That never happened as she had a stroke during the Christmas holidays and died on January 1, 1939. She was buried beside her husband Bruce in the Farley Family Cemetery.” {The Farley, Gillespie, McGaha, Trotman, Crutcher, and Williams families o f Madison are interconnected by marriages and have members in this cemetery, which is south of Miller Plaza, near the railroad and known now as the Farley-Crutcher Cemetery.} “Lorinda’s family continued to grow. Nancy married J. B. Womack from Lynchburg, Tennessee. Frances married Stephen H. Bryant from Booneville, Mississippi, and Lorinda married H. B. Williams from Oswego, New York. Bill married Joanne Rowe from Denver, Colorado, and Elizabeth married Hugh A. Watkins from Dayton, Ohio. Lorinda’s husband Herbert died on August 7, 1961. He was buried in the Madison Cemetery. Elizabeth stayed with Lorinda Home of Robert E. “Pud” until she married in 1963. Nancy and J. B. lived with Lorinda until she died on and Gladys McFai'len True January 1, 1966. She was buried beside Herbert. “Later after J. B. died, Nancy married Orval Cooper. They remodeled the house at 313 Church Street and still live there. {Nancy died in 2005.} Miss Hessie’s house has never had anyone but family living in it. Today the descendants continue to carry on the tradition of service in church and community that was started by Hessie Gillespie Farley.” 318 Church Street This landmark house was just barely out­ side the city limits when it was constructed in 1941. Robert Edgar (“P ud”) True and his wife, Gladys Naomi McFarlen, purchased the lot Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 63

from Caudis Tribble and had the house built by O. K. Matthews of Huntsville. They moved into the home on New Year’s Day 1942. In 1953 they hired Readus Riddle of Madison to enlarge the back of the house to its present size. Gladys documented many details of the house and life in Madison by writing an illus­ trated book, M y Life from Wagons to Rockets, in 1997. Gladys was born in Trenton, Alabama, in 1913. She married Pud in 1931, the same year that she gradu­ ated from high school. They moved to Madison on Valentine’s Day 1933, after Pud got out of the army and had worked for a time at a store in Gurley. The owner of that store got a letter from Doc Hughes of Madison asking if he knew anyone who wanted a job at Hughes’ drugstore. He told Pud to take the opportunity. Hughes paid Pud about three times what he had made at Gurley, so Pud and Gladys stayed. Their first Madison home was a rented room at 25 Front Street, when that house was owned and occupied by the Colliers. The Trues became active in the Methodist Church and other organizations in Madison, eventually owning a grocery store at 208 M ain Street, current site of the Bandito Bur- rito Restaurant. The Trues bought the local telephone com­ pany in 1938 and hired Viola Styles Keel (P ud’s aunt) to operate the switchboard. Viola brought her two sons from Gurley, Percy Brooks and Ralph (“Buddy”) Keel. They lived Cover of Gladys’ book in the room with the switchboard for a time on the second floor of the Humphrey- Hughes Rexall Drugstore building at 200 Main Street. Therefore, Gladys and Pud True were responsible for getting Percy Keel to live in Madison, where he became the first historian of the Madison Station Historical Preservation Society, of which Gladys was a charter member and primary organizer. Pud died in 1987, and Gladys continued to live in Madison into 2004. She had fifty-six years of marriage, two daughters (Eleanor Ann and Beverly Ruth), six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren when she published her delightful book about Madison. She also privately published copies of a manuscript supple­ mented with newspaper clippings that she titled Reflections o f Madison, 1869—1999. Both books are available on CD-ROM from the Madison Station Historical Preservation Society. Brewer House, 116 Martin Street This house was built around 1880 for George Washington M artin’s son, Berry Leeman M artin, who was the Madison depot agent in 1889 and the 1890s. By 1920 Berry’s house was sold to Joel Lee Brewer, who served as mayor of Madison 1923—27. Joel was born in Kentucky of a family with Colonial Virginia 64 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

L eft: Home of Berry Leeman roots that had migrated through North Carolina before going to Kentucky. Jot Martin and Joel Lee Brewer owned and operated the Brewer Cotton Gin, on the north side of the railroad tracks (still standing but just barely) behind the Glass Company and the Nort Right: Remains of Brewer Alabama Gas Company buildings. Cotton Gin, east side of Church Street Joel’s wife was Katie Ashford Watkins, daughter of James Albert Watkin and Martha Caruthers Martin. “Mattie” was a sister of Berry Leeman Marti and daughter of George Washington Martin. Joel and Katie Watkins Brewer ar both buried in Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville. They produced five children Watkins Lee (never married); Martha Kathryn (married Andrew Lanier); Jo Allen (married Mary Belle Smith), Alice Elizabeth (married Henry Lee Hil son); and John Norman (married Mary Alice McCutcheon). Kathryn’s marriagi to a Lanier was not the first interconnection of the Lanier and the Brewer fami lies. Their linkages have been numerous, going back to the 1600s in America Alice’s marriage to Henry Hilson produced Brian Hilson, current president anc CEO of the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce. Joel Lee Brewer’s father-in-law, James Albert Watkins, was a trustee o Madison High School when it was incorporated in 1895. He was initially a clerl in the store of his father-in-law, George Washington Wise. James and Matti< Watkins made most of the entries in the ledger for that store in the years 1888-9 That ledger, consisting of several hundred pages and containing the names anc purchases of hundreds of Madison-area residents has been photographed and included in the “Pot­ pourri” section of the M adison Memories Collection CD-ROM series offered by the Madison Statior Historical Preservation Society. By his first wife, Emma Pride (daughter o: James Harvey Pride and Amanda Butler), James Watkins had three children. Emma died after five years of marriage. She and her last-born child (a gir named Emma) both died in early 1886. The first two children of Emma and James Watkins were-

George W ashington Wise standing in the door of his store with James Albert W atkins and Herman Humphrey- Thts store was located at the southwest corner of W ise Street and Main Street, extending back to Martin Street. Mattie Eleanor (married James Hugh Stone) and Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 65

L eft: Example o f 1888—89 Wise Store ledger, preserved by Alice Hilson

Right: Alice Brewer Hilson 66 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

James Albert (married Mattie Lee Strong). Two years after the death of Emma, James married Mattie Martin, who lived to age ninety-six. Mat­ tie is buried in the old section of the Madison City Cemetery beside her husband. Her father (George Washington Martin) and mother (Nancy Leeman) are buried nearby, in the M artin family plot of the cemetery with a shared monument to mark their graves. James Albert Watkins served as county commissioner of District 5, Precinct 8 from 1900 to 1907. He would no doubt have served longer, but he died in office. H is life illustrates the changes that the Civil W ar made in Southern society. In the census ol 1860, he lived with his par­ ents. After the war, the 1870 census revealed that he and his brother were living in a household headed by a blacksmith named Querlan Smith. In the census of 1880, however, he was listed as living in a household headed by a black man named Moses Moore. James’ occupation was listed as “manages farm.” Since the farm was apparently owned by the black family, we can see in the situation a reversal of traditional roles from before the war.

James Albert Watkins The Watkins line in America included another James Watkins, who accom­ panied John Smith in 1608 on his travels through Virginia, when Capt. Smith was rescued from death by Chickahominy Indian Princess Pocahontas. An ancestral relative of James Albert Watkins, Dr. John Watkins, was a member of the first Alabama State Constitutional Convention in Huntsville in 1819. James was linked by marriage to William Bankhead, U.S. congressman of Alabama and father of Tallulah Bankhead, a famous movie actress who was born in Huntsville. William Bankhead was a great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson, our nation’s third president. James Watkins was connected by marriage to Susannah Withers, wife of Clement Comer Clay, eighth governor of the state. He was likewise connected to Joseph Watkins of Georgia, who at age twenty invented an operable cot­ ton gin that got the attention of Eli Whitney. Eli came to inspect the machine and figured out some improvements. Eli Whitney thereafter became recognized as the inventor. Joseph was exhorted by his neighbors and family to take Eli to court, but he was content to just keep on farming. Watkins family links to other notables of early north Alabama included the surnames of Bibb, Pope, Walker, Clay, Hundley, Hughes, and Spencer. It would seem that the people of the house at 116 Martin Street had quite a wide range of contacts, connections, and influ­ ence through time. Pride House, 320 Martin Street William Thomas Pride and his wife, Mary Fletcher Pride, built their house in 1911. While their marriage is not included in the on-line listing provided by the Madison County Records Center (courthouse probate archives) at http://www. co.madison.al.us/mcrc/, the marriage is mentioned in the book about Dr. Rich­ ard Matthew Fletcher, as written by his daughter, Octavia, in the early 1900s. Octavia’s sister, Mary, wife of Dr. William T. Pride, was known to the family as “Tee”. Tee and “Willy T.” Pride were probably married in Limestone County, since the Fletcher family had roots there. In the census records of 1910 and 1920, Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 67

Tee is shown as Mary G. Pride, born 1875, whereas William T. Pride was born Pride-Bashore House about 1865. Their firstborn son was listed in 1910 as James W. Pride (age two), but in 1920 he was listed as Wilsey J. Pride (age twelve). Dr. Pride was one of six children of James Harvey Pride and his wife, Amanda Butler. James Harvey Pride was one of three respected citizens of Madison who were seized by the Union forces following a battle in the town on May 17, 1864. They were taken as presumed spies, to be executed for sup­ posedly guiding the Confederate forces to eliminate the Union sentries, but a more reasonable Union officer intervened after a time, and the men were released unharmed. The parents of James were Wilsey and Rebecca Pride. Wilsey’s will of 1848 was entered into probate in 1849. Testators were Samuel Trotman, David Blackburn, and James Irvin. The will listed as heirs Wilsey’s widow, Rebecca, and seven children. Specifically named were Mary Jane, Alexander, and Martha, all born to his second wife. The listed heirs also included children by his first wife, who was Eleanor Gray. These children were William, James H., Burton, and Margaret (born 1818, married to John Maxwell). Eleanor was a daughter of William and Eleanor Wardrobe Gray, and she married Wilsey Pride in 1805. After her passing, Wilsey married Rebecca Gray Love in 1839, according to several family trees posted on www.ancestry.com. Those trees show that Wilsey was born in 1783, a son of Burton Pride and Sarah Bizwell. Burton Pride was a son of Thomas Pride, whose ancestry was shown back to the 1600s in Virginia and England, including intermarriages with the Burtons and Fowlers, surnames found as pioneers of Redstone Arsenal lands. James Harvey Pride’s brother, William G. Pride, married Ellen Jane Gray. In the 1850 census of Monroe County, Mississippi, the family of William G. Pride included Nancy Gray, age sixty-five, born in Virginia, so the Pride and Gray families of Madison remained closely connected through the years. James’ son, Walter, married Katie Garner, and James’ son, Wilsey, married Katie Mason. 68 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Wilsey fathered another James Harvey Pride, who was born in 1877 and died by 1935. This younger J. H. Pride, grandson of the senior and nephew of Dr. William Pride, was a partner in the firms of Pride & Bradford (drugstore) and Pride & Carter (general store) in Madison, according to the 1905 Alabama Mercantile Book. H e became an attorney, according to the 1929 Alabama Blue Book and Social Register. This nephew of Dr. William Pride married Sallie LeRoy Betts, daughter of Judge Tancred Betts of Madison. Tancred Betts was a son of Edward Chambers Betts. Tancred served as Madison County attorney as well as judge of the circuit court and later as judge of the law and equity court. He was a trustee of the Alabama Polytechnic Insti­ tute (Auburn University) and served for ten years as chairman of the Madison County Democratic Executive Commit­ tee. H e married M aude M inor Broun, a daughter of Dr. William LeRoy Broun and Sallie Fleming. Edward Betts (father of Tancred) was born and raised on his father Charles Betts’ plantation, a part of which was located between what is now Hughes Road, Gillespie Road, Brown’s Ferry Road, and Wall-Triana Highway. This Public Library, Betts is where the Kroger Shopping Center, the Madison Branch Library, and Bob Plantation location Jones High School are today. Members of the Maxwell family (married into the Pride and the Blackburn families) are buried in the Gray Cemetery, used by the old Providence Presbyterian Church, just to the northwest of the planta­ tion. There is another old cemetery on the plantation that could have originally been used by the Betts family, but it has no tombstones today, so the Betts family perhaps used the Gray Cemetery. Edward Betts’ father, Charles Edward Betts, lived in Lunenburg, Mecklenburg County, Virginia, before coming to Madison County, Alabama, to establish his local plantation. He married Martha Cous­ ins Chambers, a sister of U.S. Sen. Henry Chambers, namesake of Chambers County, Alabama. Edward Betts was the first commissioner of agriculture for Alabama as well as an attorney and judge of the county court. He was educated in private schools in Madison County and by private tutors, going to the University of Virginia before studying and traveling in the east and abroad. After practicing law for a number of years, he retired to the family plantation, serving as trustee of the Univer­ sity of Alabama. In 1854 Edward married Virginia Augusta Swope in Lawrence County, Alabama. She was a daughter of John Swope and Cyntha Early. Cyn- tha shared common ancestry with Gen. Jubal Early of the Confederacy, and her Swope ancestors came from Ireland to Virginia in 1702. The family is descended from Carbri Lifichar, an ancient king of Ireland, born in 225 A.D. Interconnections of the Pride, Fletcher, Maxwell, Betts, Mason, Brown, and Gray families of the Madison area led to some interesting interactions. For exam­ ple, when Amanda Pride, widow of the older James Harvey Pride and mother of Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 69

Dr. William T. Pride, went to court in Madison County to establish the right to Bibb House Bed & Breakfast inherit and sell the lands of her deceased husband, the case was adjudicated by Inn, Ann Whatley on porch Judge Tancred Betts, a relative. In fact, one can be sure that members of these interconnected families visited the house at 320 M artin Street in Madison on many occasions as they celebrated special events, like the birth of sons James Wilsey Pride and Richard Fletcher Pride to Dr. William Pride and his wife, Mary Fletcher. Bibb House, 11 A llen Street In 1984 the Bibb-Whatley home (built in 1867) was placed on the Alabama and the National Historical Registers by its current owners, Phil and Ann What­ ley. The Whatleys operate the home as a bed and breakfast establishment under James Henry Bibb the name “Bibb House.” It is located about one block west of the boundar­ ies of the historical district of Madison, but it is one of the oldest homes in the town. James Henry Bibb, the original owner, died of measles at age forty-four in 1870, leaving a widow and seven children. He was among petitioners who in 1869 requested authorization from the state legislature to change the town name from Madison Station to just Madison. He was elected to the first town council that year. He is buried in the Dillard- Bibb Cemetery on the north side of Mill Road, west ot Sullivan Street at the Governor’s Estates housing development. James Bibb was one of the largest landowners of the area in terms ol the acres that he purchased around the town. Some of his land was bought from Hezekiah Bradley Cartwright, son ol John Cartwright, a pioneer landowner. James Bibb for a time had a “storehouse” on Lot 11, Main Street, near Sarah Clay’s residence, which was on Lot 9. 70 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

Madison’s James Bibb was a son of Rev. James H. Bibb of Huntsville and his wife, Sally Alford. The father was from Amherst County, Virginia, by way of Nashville, Tennessee. He was an early Methodist minister of this area, preaching at Jordan’s Chapel and Methodist camp gatherings. He also served as Madison County tax assessor and collector from 1824 until his death in 1826. H e and Sally had ten children, of whom only one died young. W hen James died, Sally was left with seven minor children, according to an article written by descendant Kath­ leen Apperson Williams. James Henry Bibb of Madison was the youngest, being born five weeks after his father’s death. Sally lived for another forty-two years as a widow, out­ living all but four of her ten children. Sally and her husband are buried in Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville. On February 13, 1855, Madison’s James Bibb married Laura Dillard, who was twenty-three when she died in 1859 after four years of marriage. She is buried in the Dillard-Bibb Cemetery along with her husband and his second wife, Rebecca Robinson. The little private cemetery contains graves and markers for James, Laura, Laura’s, father, Joshua Dillard (1789—1859, born in Din- widdie County, Virginia), and Laura’s mother, Catharine D illard (1794—1855, born in North Carolina). Also found there are tombstones for James Edward Bibb (1867—71, son of James and Dillard-Bibb Cemetery Rebecca) and William T. Bibb (1865-68, another son of James and Rebecca). The last of the known graves in the cemetery is for James Bibb Spragins (1872—74), son ofjames Robert and Sallie K. Spragins. Sallie Kate Spragins was a daughter of James Bibb and his first wife, Laura Dillard. The 1870 census shows in the area served by the Madison Post Office a household headed by Rebecca (Robinson) Bibb, widow of James. Nearby were households headed by blacksmith Seymour Doolittle and by wagon maker James Strong. Sarah Clay, widow of Andrew Clay, was close. M artha Robinson, age fifty-six, was included in Rebecca’s 1870 household, as were Sarah (“Sallie”) K. Bibb at age thirteen and Robert Spragins, age twenty-three. Sarah and Robert were the parents of james Bibb Spragins, who was born in 1872, when Sarah would have been only fifteen and Robert was twenty-five. James Robert Spragins was not only a son-in-law of Rebecca Bibb; he was also the administrator of the estate of her husband, James Bibb. In the 1880 census, Spragins was listed as a merchant in Madison. One of James Bibb’s sisters, Elizabeth Alford Bibb, married first to Stephen Hussey and had one child by him, Edmund L. Hussey. When Stephen died, Elizabeth married William Parham. They had two girls— Mary Ann, who mar­ ried Thomas J. Cain, and Elizabeth Cassandra, who married Thomas F. Allen. Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 71

Hughes House, 1464 Hughes Road This farm house was owned by John Abernathy Hughes, son of Edmund James Hughes, who was born in 1820 in Virginia. Edmund was the first known schoolteacher of this area, at a school that was located about a quarter-mile south of the depot before the town was established. He continued to teach at that school until the Civil War broke out. After the war, John T. Lipscomb became the teacher, and the school was moved into Madison Station. Edmund married Sarah Abernathy (granddaughter of James Bailey and daughter of Jesse Abernathy and Sarah Bailey) in 1857. They are both buried in the Bailey Cemetery, south side of Mill Road, east of County Line Road, in the Cedar Springs development. Jesse Abernathy (1812—36) is also buried there. Edmund and Sarah Hughes had two sons, Robert L. (born 1865) and John A. (born 1869). Robert Hughes married Nannie Vaughn in 1888, and they were the parents of at least seven children, including Gordon Pelham Hughes (born 1896) and Howard H. Hughes (born 1906), who are both buried with their wives in the new section of the Madison City Cemetery, north side of Mill Road, west of Hughes Road. John Abernathy Hughes married Laura Vaughn in 1901. The Vaughn girls who married the Hughes brothers were sisters, two of the eight children born to George Washington Vaughn (1825—1903) of Monrovia. One of their brothers also married a sister of John and Robert, Ella Hughes. G. W. Vaughn married Sarah Elizabeth Yancey. He was a son of Micajah Vaughn, who was a signer of the 1819 Alabama State Constitution. One of G. W.’s sisters (Tabitha) married Hezekiah J. Balch, while a half-sister (Rebecca Walker, from his mother’s previous marriage to Jesse Walker) married Alfred Wall. It is the Wall family that gives Wall-Triana Highway its name. The Balch families of John Abernathy Hughes House 72 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Madison descended from Hezekiah, and their ancestry has been traced back to the 1600s in Beverly, Massachusetts, where the family built the oldest still- standing wood frame house in America. The family history includes residence in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, where in 1775 an ancestor (also named Hezekiah J. Balch) was primary drafter of the world’s first declaration ot indepen­ dence, which became the model used by Thomas Jefferson and others when the United States Declaration of Indepen­ dence was created in 1776. The Balches were charter mem­ bers of Mount Zion Baptist Church, and Hezekiah was its first Sunday School superintendent. He and Tabitha have the oldest marked graves in the church cemetery. John Hughes and Laura had three sons: George Wal­ ton (1903), Luther (1907), and Yancey (1908). It was Walton Hughes who became known as “Doc,” the local pharma­ cist for many years in Madison. “Doc” Hughes married Sarah Parham in 1921, and they had daughter Marion P. Hughes, who married Eugene Anderson. Gene Anderson served as mayor of Madison in 1957-65. H e and his sons, Walt and Larry, owned the Hughes Hard­ ware store at Main and Church Streets after receiving it from Marion’s father. Gene and Marion developed a housing subdivision in town, south of Old Madison Pike and east of Hughes Road. Many of the street names Marion Hughes Anderson commemorate family members. John Hughes in 1910 sold land for a school near the junction of Hughes Road with Highway 72. “Forest H ill School” was a one-room building that served students

Eugene ("Gene") J. I from Monrovia as well as the north M adi­ Anderson I son area. When the school was consolidated Top: Walton “Doc” Hughes with the Madison Training School in 1919, the land was sold back to John and wife in their drugstore Hughes. By providing for education of area children in the early 1900s, John (Huntsville daily newspaper Hughes complemented the efforts of his father, Edmund, fifty years earlier toward photo by George Evans) developing the intellect of the population. His descendants are still pioneering Bottom: Hughes Hardware developments in the area today, and the house stands witness to the farmer who storefront, east end of Main planted seeds for the town’s growth. Street “Harris House,” 104 Metaire Lane I his large house on Rainbow Mountain in Madison with a view of Hunts­ ville was built by James Cooper for his bride, Charity Allison Cooper, soon after 1818. Originally, it overlooked the Tennessee River from about a mile north of its banks, on land that is now a part of Redstone Arsenal. The house was extensively renovated after its move to Madison by Tyler and Evelyn Darwin in 1977. Mrs. Darwin stated that it took intervention by both Huntsville Mayor Joe Davis and U.S. Sen. John Sparkman to cut through the “red tape” to get the house moved Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 73

from the arsenal. The Darwins are connected by marriage with the Madison Cooper-Lea-Harris House, Humphrey families. Metaire at Eastview James Cooper came to Madison County around 1818. He began buying land that later became arsenal property until he had a plantation. A 1933 newspa­ per account states that he built his house with brick brought down the Tennessee River from Chattanooga. However, Evelyn Darwin in 2003 said that it was made with plank siding, not brick. The house has passed through many owners. It is said to be haunted, with a female form or ghost seen at various times on the stair­ way. It is strange that the tales would involve a female, since it was James Cooper whose death would more normally be expected to generate stories of unhappy spirits hanging around the house. James committed suicide by walking into the Tennessee River with a large iron pot fastened around his neck on a cold Decem­ ber 7, 1834. The reason for his despondency was never known. A few years after James’ death, Charity married Houston H. Lea, who also owned extensive lands that became part ol the arsenal. Houston died in 1853, leaving Charity well-positioned. However, she fell on hard times and died pen­ niless in 1872. Before her death, the estate was liquidated for debts by a sheriff’s sale, at which time the house was purchased by James W. and Francis Fennell. The)' sold it to George Scruggs in 1882, and in 1886 it was sold to Solomon Schiffman. There were several other owners before it finally was sold around 1920 to Joseph B. Harris and became known thereafter as the Harris House. The rapid change of ownership suggests that perhaps there was something to the ghost stories after all. Extensive details about the house itself and its early own­ ers can be found in the Huntsville Times story written by Pat Jones and published on M arch 5, 1933, on page 4. The house is currently owned by M adison’s city attorney, Ann Marie Lacy. 74 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Lanford-Slaugh er- Camper House, 7400 Old Madison Pike Tucked away in the trees just north of the S-curves on the east side of Indian Creek and west of the new Raytheon building on the north side of Old Madison Pike is one of the most impressive mansions in Madison County. The location is about three miles from historic downtown Madison. The house sits along what was the main thoroughfare between Huntsville and the area that became Madison Station a few years after the mansion was built. In fact, that route was the original path of Alabama Highway 20, and the creek was crossed at a ford where it has only one channel, 1500 feet west of the mansion, about a quarter-mile north of the present crossing’s double bridges. While the 5,679-square-foot house itself was never within the city limits of Madison, its owners and their families figured prominently in Madison’s history and were considered to be Madison area resi­ dents with Madison “roots,” marriages, and business connections. Lanford-Slaughter- The mansion was built by William Lanford, a son of Robert Lanford. Robert Camper House. was an early pioneer of land that is now the eastern part oi Redstone Arsenal. He (Photo from Heritage donated the first land for the church that became Jordan’s Chapel, where a num­ Room files of the Huntsville-Madison ber of Madison-area residents worshiped and some of their immediate ancestors County Public IJbraty, preached. Jordan’s Chapel was either the second or third oldest Methodist Epis­ courtesy of Ranee Pruitt.) copal Church in north Alabama, having been organized in the early 1820s. It had Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 75

Isham Fennell monument in Maple Hill Cemetery 76 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

disappeared by the time Madison was founded in the 1850s, but research indicates that it was located very near the present location of Morris Elementary School on that portion ol Old Madison Pike that was renamed to Bob Wallace Avenue as Huntsville grew toward the west. (Originally, the most direct road into Huntsville from Madison was called Brown’s Ferry Road all the way.) Robert Lanford was reported in an article by Pat Jones in the Huntsville Times of May 14, 1933, to have come from Nashville with LeRoy Pope (“Father of Huntsville”). According to the Jones article, Robert built the second cabin in Huntsville (as laid out per a plat by LeRoy Pope, apparently) near the southeastern corner of the courthouse square. Today that would be the site of the Harrison Brothers Hardware store or the Schiffman Building in Huntsville. Robert would later buy twenty-five hundred acres that encompassed West Huntsville of 1933. There he built a mansion that became known to future generations as the McCalley House. William Lanford, born 1797 in Spotsylvania, Virginia, was one of three chil­ dren born to Robert. William had his mansion constructed in 1850-01 on 1,975 acres that he bought from James W. Camp, who had purchased the land from LeRoy Pope. Today it is part of a fifty-two-acre parcel, and tax records state that the house was built in 1840. The mansion was originally the centerpiece of a self-contained community of slave cabins, a school, a blacksmith shop, and a mill located on the creek for grinding wheat and corn. There was a central hall running from south to north the length of the house. It was illuminated by open­ ing the double doors at either end of the hall or by opening the doors to the side rooms. The six panel side doors, when opened, provided a large dance floor for entertaining. The southern face of the house had a brick portico supporting four front columns nearly fifty feet tall. In addition to the two stories above ground, there was a bricked full basement containing a wine cellar and other rooms. William Lanford married first to Emily DuArmond, a widow who died childless after a few years of marriage. He then married Charlotte Fennell, a daughter of the senior Isham Fennell, whose wife was Temperance Jordan. Tem­ perance was a daughter of Bartholomew Jordan, the namesake of Jordan’s Chapel. Charlotte was a sister to the junior Isham J. Fennell, who was enumerated in M ad­ ison by the 1860 census and whose grave is marked with the largest monument in Huntsville’s Maple Hill Cemetery. William and Charlotte had three children: Martha, Mary, and Robert. Martha married Lorenzo Russell and moved to Arkansas. Robert was killed at the Battle of Shiloh near Corinth, Mississippi, early in the Civil War. In 1853 Mary married Dr. John R. Slaughter, a physician in Huntsville of Virginia heritage. However, after the death of Charlotte and when William became ill, Dr. Slaughter and Mary moved his practice to the Indian Creek mansion. Dr. Slaughter built a small brick office in the front yard to see his patients. William died in 1881 after the ravages of the Civil War had spoiled the estate. The property was divided by drawing from a hat by Mary and Martha, who returned from Arkansas. Martha got the land north of the house, including the mill on the creek. Mary drew rights to the house from the hat, so she and Dr. Slaughter remained on the premises, where Dr. Slaughter often treated Madison patients and became a close friend of Dr. Richard Mat­ thew Fletcher, the respected Civil War doctor of Madison. The 1880 census Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 77

Lanford-Slaughter-Camper House, 1920s. (Photo from Heritage Room files of the Huntsville- Madison County Public Library, courtesy of Renee Pruitt.)

Camper’s dogwood tree. (Photo by Don Vansant, courtesy of Huntsville Botanical Garden) 78 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

shows Dr. Slaughter as head of a household that included William Lanford as his father-in-law at age eighty-two. The household included five children, with Lottie T. shown as age ten, while Dr. Slaughter was fifty-five and his wife, Mary E., was forty-six. In 1896 “Lottie” Slaughter, daughter of Dr. John and Mary, mar­ ried James H. Cain of Madison. Mary died in 1913 after her husband had already passed, and the home was sold to E. D. Johnston of Huntsville. In 1919 it was sold to W illiam Olin Camper, who was born in 1879. A deed to Olin Camper in 1908 stated that he was “an unmarried man” at that time. Yet, the 1930 census showed “Olen W.” Camper at age forty-nine with wife, Vossie, age forty-two, born in Tennessee. That record further revealed that “Olen” was first married at age thirty, while Vossie was first married at age twenty-three— indicating that their nineteen-year Dr. John R. Slaughter marriage (as of 1930) was the first for each of them. It is known that Olin Camper was a son ot Robert Isaac Camper, who lived on the east bank of Indian Creek, on the south side of the “S” curve, where the new Catholic High School is to be constructed. The large dogwood tree that was moved to the Huntsville Botanical Garden recently was on his property. Robert was a son of Benjamin L. Camper, who lived and died in what is now the geographic center of Madison, near the junction of Brown’s Ferry Road (Old Madison Pike) with Hughes Road. The Camper family cemetery is behind the Casa Blanca Restaurant. There is another Camper family cemetery on the east shoulder of Slaughter Road just south of Doane Drive, where Robert Isaac is buried, but that one is unmarked and has no tombstones today. Amanda Carnes Camper, Benjamin L. Camper was a son of Simon Camper of Meridianville who 1836-85 moved to and died in Marshall County and is buried in the Warrenton Cem­ etery. The Camper genealogy has been traced back to the Kemper (Camper) families of the 1714 Germanna settlement near Fredericksburg, Virginia. A daughter of Simon and sister of Benjamin L. was Amanda M. Camper. She married Bryant Cobb, a War of 1812 soldier who lived in the Berkley community between New Hope and Hampton Cove. Bryant was a promi­ nent, politically important pioneer of Madison County and a close relative of W. R. W. Cobb, the famed U.S. congressman of the Civil War era. The Cobbs of Berk­ ley and the Campers of Madison no doubt visited one another in the old days, as numerous records show inter­ actions of the families. Children of Benjamin L. Camper and his wife, Susan Glass (probably a daughter of Madison County pioneer Vincent Glass), were Benjamin F. Camper, Blooming Goodner Camper (who was called “Dune” by family), George Camper, Robert Isaac Camper, Jordan H . Camper, and Musa Dora Camper (who died in 1853 at age twelve). Blooming Goodner Camper’s first wife, Amanda Carnes Camper, is known to be buried in the Chapter Three: Historic Homes & their Owners 79

cemetery behind Casa Blanca, and after her death, he married Fannie Freeman Hotel Twickenham “The Pride of the Madison-area Freeman families. It is believed that B. G. and Fannie are of Huntsville” 100 large, airy buried beside Amanda’s grave in the southwest corner of the cemetery, where two rooms; 36 private baths; open all year, delightful climate, pure additional obvious but unmarked grave depressions are found. This cemetery was spring-mater; rates: $2.50 room, originally that of the John W. Farrald family, according to old deeds, and several $3.50 with private bath (1920) other unmarked grave depressions on the east side are most likely for that family. The Camper family had numerous contributions to history in Madison and Madison County. Olin Camper and his brother, Robert E. Camper, owned and operated the Toggery Shop, advertised as “Fine Tailoring” and “Exclusive Gent’s Furnishings.” Robert E. Camper was for a while the owner and operator of the Twickenham Flotel in Huntsville, according to legal papers of 1933. There was a Camper Brothers Garage for automobile repairs in 1915. There were even lawsuits involving the Campers and several other notable area families, Harvey Anderson, and the Apperson Ice Cream Company. However, perhaps the most notorious of the Camper family impacts in this area was that of Jordan H. Camper’s murder trial, resulting from his shooting of an Italian immigrant. As with most families, there were positive aspects of their time in the community as well as negative aspects. The mansion on Old Madison Pike stands as a witness to the influence of the Lanfords and the Campers, but today it is hid­ den from public view, just as much of the families’ history is not obvious to the townspeople now. Scenes o f Madison Scenes of Madison 81

12 Main Street, Whitworth House

16 Main Sreet, Clay House

101 Main Street, Main Street Cafe 82 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Right: 106 Main Street, Studio 106

Middle: 108 Main Street, Gregg Young Studio

Bottom Left: 110 Main Street, Whitworth Realty

Bottom Right: 112 Main Street, West Station Antiques Scenes of M adison 83

Top: 200 Main Street, Hughes Drugstore

Middle: 202 Main Street, J. I H. Cain Store (now Somerset Group)

Bottom: 206 Main Street, J ’s Salon

Above: 204 Main Street, Chamber of Commerce 84 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Top Left: 208 Main Street, Bandito Bumto

Bottom Left: 216 Main Street, Hughes Hardware (closed)

Top Right: Village Green and Roundhouse on Front Street

Right: Village Green and Gazebo on Front Street Scenes of M adison 85

Top: 23 Front Street, Whatley House

Middle Left: 19 Front Street, Kannapel House

Middle Right: 17 Front Street, Sensenberger House

Right: 21 Front Street, Opheim House 86 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

25 Front Street, Vaughn House

110 Church Street, Keebler House

112 Church Street, Curry House, built 1935 Scenes of Madison 87

114 Church Street, Morrison House, built 1959

203 Church Street, Ellis House, built 1885

204 Church Street, Pruett-Dublin House (burned) 88 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Top Left: 127 Church Street, Methodist Church

Top Right: 307 Church Street Wheeler House

Middle: 303 Church Street, Sampieri House

Right: 301 Church Street, Spencer House, Sarah Wood walking by. (Photo by Samantha Wood) Scenes of Madison 89

308 Church Street, Sturdivant (Sears Roebuck) House

309 Church Street, Lanz House

311 Church Street, Rivers House 90 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Left: 312 Church Street, Pettigrew House

Middle Left: 316 Church Street, Tribble House

Middle Right: 313 Church Street, Cooper ("Miss I lessie’s”) House

Bottom: 317 Church Street, Charles Nola House, built 1999 Scenes of Madison 91

318 Church Street, True House

266 Mill Road, Frank Sola House, built 1993

243 Mill Road, Jack anil Lillian Clift House

225 Mill Road, Farley-Wann House 92 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

11 Allen Street, Whatley's Bibb House (Bed & Breakfast)

310 Martin Street, Lanier House

320 Martin Street, Bashore House Scenes of Madison 93

15 Arnett Street, Cassidy-Murch House

18 Arnett Street, Steadman House

20 Arnett Street, Apperson- Brown House 94 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Top: 113 Maple Street, Haas House

Middle: 17 College Street, Madison School

Right: Sarah and Samantha Wood at First Baptist Church, 2006. (\'iem of east side, College Street) Scenes of Madison 9 5

Top Left: Gene and Marion Hughes Anderson house, 100 Bluebelle Drive, built 1984. I Photo by Samantha Wood)

Top Right: Charles F. Apperson Jr. Home, 4530 Sullivan Street, at Browns Feny Road’ built 1988. (Photo by Samantha Wood)

Middle: Madison Municipal Complex, 1990. (Photo from City of Madison)

Left: 2006—7 Sophomore Samantha Wood at Bob Jones High School on Hughes Road 96 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Top: Hughes Road at Madison Boulevard

Middle: Lanier Houses, 154 Maple Street and beyond

Right: Cotton bloom, still an economic factor of the area The futl -color section o f the “Scenes o f Madison” concludes with a W ELCOMfc to all, set off with a reflection of idyllic life at the core of the city and ending with a reminder of the beauty of our towns heritage, unfolding to new possibilities.

CHAPTER FOUR

‘True Tates & Tidbits

Civil War Days It is impossible to determine exactly how many citizens of Madison fought in the Civil War. It appears that about sixty families of the area sent sons or husbands into the conflict for the Confederacy, totaling about ninety officers and troops. Most of them served in Alabama units, but some served in units repre­ Opposite page top: The old senting Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and even Virginia. Hertzler home was located on Church Charles R. Wells in 1998 published a book titled The Valiant Survivors, The United Street. The house was occupied by Confederate Veterans of Madison County, A Record of their Services, 1861—1865. His Dr. John Hertzler and family. Dr. book provides some well-researched insights into names and units of Confederate Hertzler came to Madison from Pennsylvania after the Civil War soldiers who are known to be buried in Madison County. Logically, not all the men who served are buried here, since some were buried near the battlefields, and Opposite page middle: Cora many survivors moved away after the war. Similarly, some of the Confederate sol­ Mae Lewis diers known to be buried in Madison County did not live here before or during the war but arrived afterward. Opposite page bottom: Pic­ Wells’ book is a great starting point for a list of Confederates buried in the tured in front of gazebo left to right: Miss M ary Hertzler, Mrs. Shelby Madison area, using cemetery locations and surnames known to be associated Lanier nee Miss M ary Bradford, with the town. With the book as a basis and adding knowledge of local burials Daniel Hertzler, Miss Annie Hertzler, and citizens’ names, the list below of Madison-area Confederate soldiers has been unidentified, Dr. John Hertzler, compiled. Cordon Anderson (kneeling). 100 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Confederate Soldiers Buried in (or Connected to) Madison Abernathy, Jesse F. Gillespie, Samuel C. Allen, E. B. Gravitt, William Beavers, William Hardin, A. J. Bibb, James H. Harper, B. F. Bishop, Marion A. Harris, Thomas B. Bronaugh, F. B. Hill, William W. Bronaugh, James F. Hilliard, J. W. Bronaugh, John S. Hilliard, Phil H. Broyles, John C. Hughes, John G. Burton, George Humphrey, J. H. Burton, J. W. Humphrey, James A. Burton, James Hundley, Col. O. M. Burton, Thomas O. Hymer, Blufford Cain, 2nd Lt. James H. Isom, J. W. Cain, Thomas J. Kelly, (twelve of surname) Camper, B. F. Lanier, 2nd Lt. Burwell C Canterbury, Thomas Lanier, 1st Lt. I. A. Canterbury, William J . Lewis, Arthur Holding Clay, Andrew J. Lipscomb, John T. Clay, Theodorick S. Love, W. R. Clay, Thomas J. Lowe, J. H. Clift, John H. Martin, Elijah Thomas Clutts, William E. Martin, G. W. Collier, (5 of the family) Martin, John F. Cook,John P Nail, W. T. Cooley, Phillip Nance, Andrew J. Crutcher, 1st Lt. A. B. Nance, James R. Crutcher, Joe Nance, Jonathan W. Curtis, John Nance, Robert W. Dillard, James L. Parham, Robert W. Dillard, James Q. Powers, I. H. Douglass, W. M. Pride, Capt. James H. Ennis, R. E Pride, Wilsey Farley, James W. Sturdivant, J. J. Farroll/Farrald, John W. Sturdivant, W. C. Fletcher, Capt. Algernon S. Toney, Capt. Hugh L. Fletcher, Dr. Richard M. Toney, Harris Floyd, Capt. John B. Toney, John M. Fowlkes, 2nd Lt. William Tribble, Robert D. Freeman, C. D. Tripp, Thomas H. Garner, William T. Trotman, 2nd Lt. Yancy P Gillespie, Campbell Milton Wiggins, Robert E. Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 101

Others could be associated with Madison and its citizens due to family ties, such as Charles D. Williams (buried in the Collier family cemetery), some Strong family soldiers buried in various cemeteries of the county, and other surnames that “fit.” Besides Cpl. William Ward of the Fifteenth U.S. Colored Troops and Fran­ cis A. Brockway, who was born in Connecticut and served in Company E of the First Wisconsin Heavy Artillery, there are no known graves in the area for Union soldiers that are marked as such on tombstones. Union soldier Brockway became an accepted member of the community, as in 1869 he married Icymenda Deadman of pioneer Phillip Dedman’s line. Top: Confederate iron cross In 1862 Union forces occupied Alabama north of the Tennessee River and at grave of Robert Wiggins posted a contingent at Madison Station for most of the war duration. Confederate Bottom: Confederate iron troops held the territory south of the river and frequently forayed into the Union- cross held areas. The largest engagement of the war in Madison County occurred at Madison Station on May 17, 1864. Being the highest point on the railroad between Memphis and Chattanooga, Madison was strategic to controlling traf­ fic between Memphis and towns to the east. Part of Gen. Roddey’s command, under Col. Josiah Patterson, crossed the Tennessee River near Triana before dawn and attacked the Federals at the station blockhouse with several artillery pieces and small arms fire. Accounts vary in detail, but the engagement involved approximately one thousand cavalry and infantry from south of the river, while 102 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Francis Brockway's tombstone, Huntsville Times reporter Megan Walde at tombstone of Cpl. William Ward, Company H, Rodman Cemetery 15th U.S.C.T.

Marker by Roundhouse, Side 1 Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 103 the Union force was generally counted to be about 350 men of the Thirteenth Illinois infantry. Union sentries had been silenced, and there was a driving rain. The Federals were completely surprised. After a brief resistance, they retreated along the railroad tracks toward Huntsville. They regrouped and were reinforced at Indian Creek with infantry from the Huntsville garrison, then counterattacked and drove the Confederates back across the river by nightfall. Meanwhile, the Confederates captured supplies and armaments of the Thirteenth Illinois and burned the depot with many bales of cotton that were awaiting shipment. Reports also varied regarding casualties on each side, but the Union was stated as losing about eighty men (captured or killed), while the Rebel force was reported to have lost about sixty troops. It was this first engagement in the town that nearly got Madison physician Richard Matthew Fletcher hanged as a spy. Dr. Fletcher was born in 1830 Rich­ mond, Virginia. He was a son of James Nicholas Fletcher, the first sheriff of Nottingham County, Virginia. From the age of three, Richard was raised in the family home “Aspen Dell,” located at “Nubbin Ridge” in Limestone County, Alabama. Nubbin Ridge is where Brown’s Ferry Road crosses Burgreen Road, just west of the Madison County line. During the war, Dr. Fletcher and his family lived at Aspen Dell, but soon after the war he moved into Madison. His daughter, Octavia, in the early 1900s wrote a biography of her father from entries in her diary. It was privately printed under the title D r Richard M atthew Fletcher, 1830—1906, A Sketch of his Life and Works by Octavia Fletcher Frazier. The M adi­ son Station Historical Preservation Society obtained permission from the family to reproduce the thirty-nine-page booklet, and now it is available on CD-ROM from that society. Octavia told many stories of Dr. Fletcher’s practice in M adi­ son, but one of the more interesting episodes occurred during the last year of the Civil War, when Richard was sitting on the porch at Aspen Dell with his father. James told his son to get a ladder and see if he could work out a knot from the top of one of the eight wooden columns of the porch by putting a small nail partially into it. Richard was able to do the job, and then his father disappeared for a while and came back with a sack containing $10,000 in gold coins. He told Richard to drop the gold into the knothole, from which the coins fell to the bottom of the inside of the column. Then Richard removed the nail and glued the knot back into the hole. Every time thereafter that the Union troops came to search for money and other valuables, James would take his rocking chair and lean back against that column while talking with the searchers. After the war, a hole was cut into the bottom of the column, and the money saved many local Confederates from starvation and foreclosure. When war was first declared, Richard and his brother, Algernon Sydney Fletcher, went together to enlist. Richard was made a captain in the medical corps and sent to Virginia. He was at the first Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), treat­ ing both Confederate and Union wounded. However, about four hundred of the citizens of this area petitioned and got him returned home to treat the sick and dying here. During the remainder of the war years, Richard was allowed to freely travel to care for people of either sympathy, including troops of both sides. However, when the attack came at Madison Station in May 1864, the Union 104 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

commander (a new officer for the area) reasoned that locals must have tipped off the attacking Rebel forces about the location of sentries. Several prominent men of the area were arrested, including Edward Chambers Betts (son of pio­ neer Charles Edward Betts), James Harvey Pride, and Dr. Richard Matthew Fletcher. They were taken to Huntsville to be hanged as spies, but after a period of incarceration, a former Union commander for the area intervened and had the men released. During his medical career, Dr. Fletcher served terms as president of medical societies in both Limestone and Madison Counties. His medical edu­ cation included studying at the University of Pennsylvania and with local Dr. Algernon S. Harris, whose granddaughter, Lucy Harris, married James Arthur Wise. Dr. Fletcher was elected to various offices of the Alabama State Medical Society and developed a close friendship with Dr. John Slaughter, who lived east of Madison along Indian Creek. A second significant Civil War engagement in Madison County occurred just over two miles east of town, at the Indian Creek ford on the road from Huntsville to Madison Station. That ford was about a quarter-mile north of today’s route of Old Madison Pike where it crosses the creek at two places. The site is about three-quarters of a mile north of the railroad crossing of the creek. On December 23, 1864, it was the Thirteenth Indiana and portions of several other Union units surprising Confederate forces that had taken positions on the ridge west of the creek for several days. The attack came at dawn on a bitterly cold day that froze much of the creek and surrounding flats. The initial attack was led by elements of the Union’s Second Tennessee Cavalry under Lt. Col. Prosser. They came against about three hundred dismounted cavalry from Roddey’s, Burtwell’s, and Moreland’s regiments that were under the command of Col. Burtwell. Col. Francis Windes was supporting the Confederate operations as they attempted Marker by Roundhouse, Side 2 to delay any Union efforts to intercept the retreat to Decatur of Gen. John Bell Hood’s remaining forces, along with Gen. Nathan Bedford For­ rest, from disastrous battles at Nashville and Franklin, Tennes­ see. The Rebel force at Indian Creek included older boys and young men recently recruited in Huntsville as a last-ditch attempt to prevent the Federals from reoccupying the town after their temporary withdrawal to reinforce the fights at Nashville and Franklin. The Confederate forces could not get organized to effectively resist the attack, and a complete rout resulted, with some of the Rebels going to Madison Station to seek refuge. The over­ all Confederate loss was reported Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 105 as several killed, with fifty-four wounded and captured. Most of the wounded suffered saber cuts, as there were relatively few bullets used in the mounted charge. Union forces reported one killed and three wounded. Col. Windes survived the engagement and the war, and in 1867 he mar­ ried Julia Graham, who lived on land that today is part of the southern portion of Redstone Arsenal. After Windes’ death, she remarried to Dr. James Cofelt Mitchell Rankin, a physician from the community of Belle Mina who served the Madison area. Dr. Rankin in 1870 bought the house built for Porter Bibb Jr., a grandson of Alabama’s second governor, Thomas Bibb. Julia and the doctor were married in 1878, and they extended their combined land holdings in the area. They are buried in the Decatur City Cemetery with a large monument, but Dr. Rankin was considered to be one of Madison’s early physicians since he served the populace here. Not only did surviving Confederates begin new lives here after the war, but a number of Union troops decided to come back after their discharge. Apparently they liked what (or the girls) they saw while stationed in the area. While most of the South bitterly complained about “carpetbaggers,” the men from the North who came to settle in the Madison area became prominent pillars of the com­ munity. Among these former U nion soldiers were Osiah Palmer from Ohio and Francis Brockway from Wisconsin. Osiah Palmer bought land here in 1866, but he did not stay many years, as he returned to Indiana in 1871 after the death of an infant son. Flowever, before leaving, he had encouraged his brother, Samuel, to come to Madison. Samuel was a nurseryman, growing a variety of fruit trees and grapevines for sale. A part of his land is known today as Palmer Park, and the road to the west from Front Street to that park near County Line Road is known as Palmer Road. The Palmer family burial plot is on the western end of the Madison City Cemetery, very near the entrance off Maple Street. Samuel’s ancestors were reported to have owned the land that became Arlington National Cemetery alter they sold the place to a well-known Virginian named Robert E. Lee before they moved to Indiana and Ohio. Not all Northerners who came to this area were motivated by Civil War experiences. For example, the Rodman family of Madison first appeared in the 1880 census of Madison County when Simon and James Rodman were enumer­ ated in the family headed by James Best (their stepfather), who was born in Ohio, but the family moved here from Indiana. James Best was of an age that probably precluded his service for the Union Army during the war. The Rodman boys’ mother, Rebecca Rodman Best, was born in England, and her first husband, Simon Rodman Sr., born in Germany, was the father of the boys. The Rodmans were quickly assimilated into the community, as Simon Rodman married Nannie Nale in 1881 and James Rodman married Mary Jane Canterbury in 1882. Both brides were of old Southern families of this area. James Rodman was born in Delaware in 1855, and Simon Jr. was born in Pennsylvania in 1857, so neither of the boys would have been old enough to serve in the war. Still, returning Union soldiers who had been stationed here may have described the area in terms that led James Best and his family to perceive that there would be good living condi­ tions and great opportunities in this region after the war. 106 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Left: Samuel Palmer House

Below Left: Samuel Palmer

Below: Envelope return address for Samuel Palmer’s stationery (found in probate records)

Palmer Park entrance Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 107

Left: Rodman family and relatives

Photo supplied by Louise Brockway Thedford from Below: Capt. John Buchanan various connections back to W.T. Rodman of Madison in 1955. Floyd House, 18 Martin Street

One of the successful Southern recoveries following the war was experienced by John Buchanan Floyd, a Confederate captain. He was the youngest of four brothers who fought for the Confederacy, sons of Dr. Nathaniel Wilson Floyd of Virginia. The family history is documented in Southern Biographies and Genealogies, 1500s—1940s. John Floyd attended Virginia Military Institute, where he studied under Professor T. J. Jackson— soon to become known as “Stonewall Jackson.” When the war started, John was on a visit to his next oldest brother, Nicholas Jackson Floyd, of Shoal Ford, near Madison in Limestone County. Nicholas immediately left for duty in the Confederate forces after obtaining John’s promise to remain in Alabama and manage the plantation. However, after the Battle of Manassas and Lincoln’s call for more troops, John could resist no longer. He put the affairs of the plantation in the hands of its black foreman and joined a newly organized Confederate company, where he was elected to a lieutenancy. The com­ pany became a part of the Thirty-fifth Alabama Infantry and distinguished itself at Corinth, Mississippi, where its major was killed. John was given a battlefield pro­ motion to replace the major, but the War Department of the Confederacy refused to move him above those in the nor­ mal progression. Instead, a captain was put in the position, and John was transferred to Gen. Joe Wheeler’s cavalry. When Wheeler’s force was sent to defend Atlanta during a Southern attack at “Big Shanty,” John Floyd was shot from his horse during the last charge against a greatly superior Union force. He received a Minie ball through an ankle, but men of his company rallied around him during intense fire and got him on his horse again. He refused to permit the surgeons to amputate his foot, and he suffered as a cripple for the rest of his life from the injury. His brother, Nicholas, was passing through on 108 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

other orders and found John in distress, so he changed his travel plans to take John back to the family home in Virginia for the remainder of the war. John B. Floyd’s photo in the composite arrangement with his brothers was made after the war, when he had acquired civilian clothing of proper size. Fie was over six feet tall, as were all of the brothers except Nicholas, who was just barely “six feet in his boots”. The photo of Nicholas was made as he passed through Lynchburg, Virginia, where his father lived. The occasion was just after the Bat­ tle of the Crater at Petersburg, Virginia, in 1864, and Nicholas was en route to the Trans Mississippi District. Nicholas was owner and editor of the Athens, Alabama, newspaper the Herald. The photo of Nathaniel Bedford Floyd is believed to have been taken in Matamoras, Mexico, while he was an officer of the general staff. He served as an ordnance officer in the sixth Texas during the Civil War. Charles Anderson Floyd fought in the Virginia Cavalry. His photo was made in camp a short time before he was killed in the repulse of Grant’s attack on the right flank of the small remnant of the Army of Northern Virginia (under Gen. Robert F. lop: Charles Anderson Floyd, Lee), only three days before the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865. 1821—18(5 After the war, John decided to revisit Nicholas’ Limestone County plantation, and there he received another “wound” from which he never recovered. He Left Center: Col, Nathan­ found a second cousin who was now a woman, not the schoolgirl that he had seen iel Bedford Floyd, 1826— before the war. H er blue-gray eyes inflicted this new wound from what started

Right Center: Capt, Nicho­ as subtle glances. The distant-in-bloodline cousin was Frances Maria Harris, las Jackson Floyd, 1828— but she was apparently not distant from John in other ways. John and Frances were both descended from Orlando Jones via one of his two granddaughters. Bottom: Capt. John Buchanan The older of the two grandchildren was Martha Dandridge, who first mar­ Floyd, 1838—1902 (mayor of ried Daniel Parke Custis and next married George Washington. Martha Dan­ Madison ) dridge Custis Washington was also a great-grandmother of Gen. Robert E. Dr. John Hertzler House, Lee’s children. The younger of the granddaughters of Orlando Jones was Fran­ College and Church Streets ces Barbour Jones, who married the unrelated Capt. John Jones. Capt. Jones Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 109 served as an officer in the Light Brigade of Harry Lee, the father of Robert E. Lee. It was Frances Jones who became the great-grandmother of both John Floyd and Frances Maria Harris, who were wed in December 1867. John and Frances produced nine children who lived to adulthood. The eldest, Elizabeth Harris Floyd, married Eldred Fletcher of Madison, son of Dr. Richard Matthew Fletcher. The second, Annie West Floyd, married William Harvey Gillespie, son of Campbell Milton Gillespie and his wife, Lorinda Clark. The third was Schuyler Harris Floyd, who married Mittie Sherrod. The fourth child of John and Frances was Ellen Stith Floyd, who married John Hertzler, son of Dr. John Hertzler, who in 1877 bought land east of Zierdt Road and north of Martin Road that is today part of the arsenal. The doctor and his family, however, resided at College and Church Streets. Ida Isabel Floyd was the fifth child of John and Frances Floyd. She married Thomas H. Hopkins, son of Frank Hopkins and Mary Harris, a descendant of the Bibb family of Alabama’s first two governors. John Buchanan Floyd Jr. was the sixth child. He married Hibernia Wise, daugh­ ter of James Arthur Wise and Lucy Harris. James Arthur Wise was brother and business partner of George Wash­ ington Wise, the prominent Madison merchant and president of the Bank of Madison, as well as partner in the Burton & Wise Drug Store and the firm of Wise Brothers & Harper. The latter firm was so named due to the inclu­ sion of partner B. F. Harper, who served as mayor of Madison 1900—01. George Wise was also trustee of the Madison Male & Female Academy, as well as partner in the firm Wise, Hertzler & Company, which was dissolved and replaced in 1887 by the partnership of the Wise Brothers. James Wise’s wife, Lucy, was a daughter of Thomas Harris, the first person buried in the Madison City Cemetery, according to death-date inscriptions on tombstones. Thomas died after the war from wounds received at the Battle of Manassas. The last three children of John Floyd and Frances Maria were Flor­ ence Lee Floyd, Charles Perkins Floyd, and Nicholas Nathaniel Floyd. They were unmarried at the time of the writing of the family document ref­ erenced earlier. John Buchanan Floyd Sr., despite his crippled ankle, became mayor of Madison for several terms, 1896 and 1898—1900. While serving in that capacity in 1896, he convinced the city to build the structure that became known as the Roundhouse, even though it was octagonal in shape. The Madison Roundhouse was built on eight-foot stilts over the town’s water supply. The water supply was a cistern dug on railroad property per a deed recorded Top: The 1930 census enu­ in July 1894. The location was specified as fifty feet south of the main track and merated G. W. Wise beside thirty feet west of the western end of the depot. Mayor Floyd painfully ascended Robert E. Cain and his wife, Lena Martin Cain, on Martin the stairs on his injured ankle every day that he went to his office in the Round­ Street, thought to be the location house, which served as the city hall, mayor’s office, and barbershop until 1936. of the house as pictured.

Best Turkey Shooter Middle: Earliest death date on tombstone in City Cemetery (from a family genealogy supplied by Percy Keel)

Elijah Thomas M artin (1833—1925), known in Madison as “the Squire,” Bottom: Original Round­ “Uncle Lige,” and “E. T.,” was among the picturesque citizens of Alabama. He house, First City H all (1896) 110 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Humphrey’s Store, circa 1900, E. T. Martin at right, holding cane like a rifle. Others (Caucasians identified by Annie Mae Drake, daughter of William Binford Humphrey Sr.) are from left: unknown, ___Trotter, _Hardiman, Arthur Wikle, H B. Humphrey Sr., Robert Earl Cain, Henry Humphrey (brother of W. B. Sr.), William Hafley, unknown (man in whiskers), Gordon Anderson (in front of man with whiskers), {E. T. Martin}, W. B. “Bennie” Humphrey Jr. (owner of the dog) is boy with arms of another boy around him. People standing in the door are unknown.

was six feet four inches in height, stood arrow straight, and was hale and hearty to his last days. He farmed more than a thousand acres northeast of Madison, land he is said to have inherited from his grandfather, American Revolutionary War veteran Frank Ephraim Martin, whose son, Richard M artin, was E. T.’s father. George Washington Martin was an older brother of E. T. The families of brothers Jesse, Henry, and Richard Martin came together by wagon train before 1810 to this area. They settled land on the northeast side of Rainbow Mountain, adjacent to holdings of Jesse Fitts, William East, William Canterbury, and Elisha Rainbolt. When the federal government offered the land for purchase in 1818, they legally procured their homesteads that had been on Indian lands. To say that E. T. drank is an understatement. He was said to have maintained a “still” in woods on his farm and to have supported several citizens whose responsibil­ ity was to produce corn whiskey to his taste. This he consumed at the rate of something more than a pint a day for upwards of sixty years. Some citizens of Madison believed his daily quota was at least a quart, judging from the rate at which bottles accumulated on his farm. However, he was never seen in a drunken condition. In his latter years, E. T. became passionately devoted to the card game of rook. It was his habit in good weather, winter and summer, to spend the hours between four and six (when the E. T. Martin sitting at Humphrey evening train arrived) playing the game with three of his cronies in front of his Store, early 1900s. William store. On one occasion he is said to have become so deeply involved in the game Binford Humphrey Sr. at left beside Clifton Canterbury. that he bet his farm on a hand and came out the winner of the town drugstore, which he then sold back to its owner at a profit. E. T. began the study of law under a judge in Huntsville before the Civil War, but he abandoned the law study when the war began. He never resumed it, but he always claimed great knowledge of the law. For more than fifty years he served as a justice of the peace in Madison, and the fame (or notoriety) of the “Squire” spread throughout the countryside. In his capacity as justice of the peace, E. T. occasionally heard minor cases in Madison. Nothing delighted him Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 111

more than to have young lawyers come from Huntsville to argue these cases, E. T. Martin home, passed to his which seldom involved anything more serious than an attachment of small prop­ daughter, Lena (wife of Robert erties or a misdemeanor. However, if the cases were argued until the time of Parham Cain), sold eventually to John lo gan Lanier his daily rook game, E. T. became agitated. On one occasion, two lawyers were deeply involved in arguments over a minor point of law. “Court” was being held outside under the trees, with the Squire leaning back in his favorite chair. As various points were made, the attorneys would produce law books marked with pieces of paper and hand them to the Squire. As the sun sank and the Squire saw his cronies assembling for his card game, he took one of the bookmarks and wrote something on it, carefully putting it back into the correct place. Then he stood up and began to saunter toward the card table. “You young fellows are making some fine arguments,” he said, “and I wouldn’t interrupt you for anything in the world. So you just go on until you’ve finished, then look on this piece of paper, and you will find my decision.” E. T.’s idiosyncrasies increased with his years. He exhausted the endurance of six wives, all of whom are reported to lie buried with him in the Madison Cem­ etery but not necessarily near him. In fact, only three of the wives (Rosa Hill, Sophronia E. Parvin, and Mary E. Miller) have tombstones remaining to recent times. Their graves are marked by small stones with identical inscriptions. E. T. had his own grave surmounted by a towering shaft, which he personally ordered and had installed before his death. However, today the obelisk is gone, replaced by a simple tablet that is more like those of Rosa Hill and her father (Judge Wil­ liam Hill, another Confederate veteran), both buried beside him. 112 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

1923 Birmingham newspaper clipping Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 113

E. T. had children by five of his wives during his nearly ninety-two years of life. At the time of his death in 1925, it was estimated that he had eighty grand­ children and forty great-grandchildren. E. T. was the subject of an article in a Birmingham newspaper in his later years. That article focused on his claim to have killed more turkeys in Madison County than any other man. The article also mentioned that he had served in the Confederate army in Ward’s Battery of Alabama. However, family legend maintains that E. T. was a sharpshooter who rode with Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. Certainly, a good turkey hunter would be an excellent marksman, and E. T. was known for his horsemanship, so there may well be a valid basis for the family account. In any event, Elijah Thomas M artin was definitely one of Madison’s intriguing characters. Namesake o f Sullivan Street Dr. George Richard Sullivan (1838—1935) was a physician in Lime­ stone County and Madison for many years. That portion of Wall-Triana Highway that passes through the heart of Madison is now named Sullivan Street in his honor. Though his medical skill was considerable, Dr. Sullivan couldn’t help with some things, no matter how much he wanted. He had a son named Oscar Washington Sullivan who was killed by lightning while plow­ ing with a mule at about the age of twenty. This happened in Limestone County at “Nubbin Ridge,” the same community where Dr. Richard M. Fletcher lived. Burgreen Cotton Gin is located there today. Oscar’s tombstone Dr. George Sullivan and wife, says that he died on July 14, 1882, but the newspaper article describing his pass­ Sallie Polk Walls ing was published July 4, 1883. Dr. Sullivan’s wife, Sallie Polk Walls, was part of the family for which Wall- Triana Highway was named— at least all except that part of it now known as Sullivan Street. The “Polk” comes from her mother’s ancestry, which included connection to James Knox Polk, eleventh presi­ dent of the United States, who served 1845 to 1849. Dr. Sullivan was born in Huntsville, lived in Madison, and died in Decatur. He must have been a good doctor, since he lived to within three years of reaching one hundred years of age. He enlisted to serve in the Confederate States Army, but they sent him home after a few months due to requests for his services back home, similar to the experience of Dr. Fletcher. Dr. Sullivan was a city councilman in 1869 when the town incorporated as “Madison,” without the word “Station” in the name. He was a partner with John W. Burton in opening the first drug­ store in Madison in 1871. Their drugstore was at today’s Hughes

Hardware location, 216 Main Street, the same building where Jim Ashford later Christmas Chicken Capers at had his funeral parlor. When George Washington Wise partnered with Bur­ Hughes Drugstore ton, the “Burton & Wise Drugstore” was moved to 200 Main Street, today seen as the Humphrey-Hughes Rexall Drugstore building This second store was rented in 1925 by pharmacist Walton “Doc” Hughes, who ran it until 1972. Doc Hughes is somewhat immortalized in Madison lore by his practice of climbing atop the store roof on Christmas eve to throw off live chickens to the waiting 114 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

crowd below. The chickens were sometimes reported to be turkeys or Guinea hens, but they had certificates for store merchandise or money attached to their legs. The annual event sometimes occurred at the water tower behind the second City Hall on Garner Street, but it always drew large crowds and was great for holiday business in Madison. The 1850 Madison County census showed George Sullivan at age twelve in the household of his parents, Isaac and Mary Sullivan. Isaac was shown as a physician, and the family lived in the area served by the New Hope post office. Since Bryant Cobb and his wife, Amanda (who was of the Madison Camper line), lived nearby, it is known that they were residing in the Berkley community, halfway between today’s Owens Cross Roads and Hampton Cove. The 1860 census showed George Sullivan at age twenty-one still living in his parents’ household in southeastern Madison County. However, this time, George was already listed with the occupation of physician at that age, while his father, Isaac, was listed as a farmer. Apparently, Isaac retired to run the farm and left his patients to be

Throwing chickens with prizes off water tower treated by George. There were also two Methodist ministers enu­ at Christmas; 2nd Madison City Hall; Martin Street merated in the 1860 Sullivan household, one of whom had a family Christmas Chicken Capers with him. It was obviously a crowded house, and the Sullivans were no doubt at second City Hall devout Methodists. The 1870 census showed that Dr. Sullivan and Sallie had four children liv­ ing in their household: Oscar (age seven), Marietta (five), Charles (three), and George (two). The 1880 census showed the household to include: Oscar (sixteen), Marietta (fourteen), Charles (twelve), George (ten), Nellie (eight), Katie (six), Nora (four), and Rosa (one). The 1880 census further showed that Dr. Sullivan’s father was born in North Carolina, whereas his mother was born in Virginia. Sullivan House, 4336 Sullivan Street. (Child on The daughter listed in census records as Marietta was shown as Henrietta in porch is Sandra Whitworth) other records, such as when she married Frank G. Hertzler in 1887. The Sul­ livan family was enumerated in 1880 next door to John Buchanan Floyd, a merchant who became mayor. A tombstone in the Sullivan family plot of the City Cemetery shows there was a child named Jessie Sullivan who was born and died on the same day in 1871, so this child appeared in neither the 1870 census (not born yet) nor the 1880 census (already deceased). Another tomb­ stone in the Sullivan family plot shows that Nellie (the girl shown as age eight in the 1880 census) died soon after the census was taken. A death certificate at Maple H ill Cemetery in Huntsville records the death of another Nellie Sullivan of Madison in 1916. This later Nellie was only age three when she died. Her death certificate was completed with information supplied by Dr. L. L. Wikle (shown as “Wilke” on the certificate, which was no doubt written by a cemetery clerk or sexton who was not familiar with Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 115 the proper spelling of Dr. Wikle’s name). Apparently, when a girl was born into the Sullivan family, it boded ill to be named Nellie. Dr. Sullivan moved to Decatur before the 1900 census, where his household included several children. The 1900 record shows him living in “New Decatur” (now part of Decatur), with his occupation shown as “physician.” It showed that he and Sal­ lie were married for thirty-eight years, with twelve children born to them but only nine living at the time of enumeration. Their daughter, Nora, was listed in the Sullivans’ household with her husband, Phillip Humphrey. Rosalie, the daughter listed in the 1880 census as age one, was included in the 1900 household at age twenty. Other Sullivan children born since the 1880 cen­ sus were listed as Inez (eighteen), Phoebia (sixteen), and Irma (thirteen). The 1910 census listed George Sullivan with Sallie and Inez, living in Decatur. It showed that George and Sallie had been married forty-eight years, with twelve children born to them, eight of whom were living in 1910. Their household included two grandchildren with the surname of Hardage. George was still listed with the occupation of “doctor” and “general practitioner.” The 1920 census listed George Sullivan in a Morgan County Sullivan plot, City Cemetery (Albany) household headed by his son-in-law, Milton T. Harvey, who had mar­ ried George’s daughter, Inez, and was listed as an accountant in an oil-processing plant. Sallie was not included, as indicated by her tombstone that shows a death date of 1917. The 1930 census showed George Sullivan still in the household of his son-in-law, who this time was given as Thomas M. Harvey. The relationship showed that George was the father of Thomas, but it should have said “father- in-law,” obviously. Thomas was stated as manager of an oil-processing plant in Decatur, where the family lived. George this time had his occupation given as “none,” so he apparently had finally retired by age ninety-three. George’s daugh­ ter, Inez, was the only other person enumerated in the household, which was listed as being on Johnson Street, near Moulton Street. When Dr. Sullivan died in Decatur five years after the 1930 census was taken, he was almost ninety-eight years old and no longer healing other folks. He was laid to rest in Madison beside his wife, Sallie, and others of his family, as well as with many of those to whom he had medically ministered for many years of his long life. Horrific A ccidents Because Madison was established as a railroad town, it is not surprising that there have been accidents associated with train traffic. Fortunately, there have been only two in the town, but both involved fatalities. The first occurred in April 1891, when Nancy Leeman, wife of first Madison merchant George Washington M artin, was struck at age sixty while crossing the tracks by the depot, where her son, Berry M artin, was stationmaster. She died about a week later. She was The Weekly Mercury, Hunts­ mother of eight children, one of whom (Logan East Martin) was struck and ville, Alabama, April 15, 1891 116 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

Left: Hassic Martin Andrews, husband, and son in train accident

Below: 1928 Huntsville newspaper headline Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 117 killed by lightning as a young adult. Additionally tragic for her family, she had a daughter, Hassie, who married Dr. Allen Louis Andrews and was killed at age fifty-one in December 1917 at a train crossing in Fort Worth, Texas. Hassie was the twin sister of Hattie Martin, who married George Washington Wise, another Madison merchant. Hassie’s husband was also killed in the Texas auto- mobile-train collision, as was their son, William, age twenty-two. Dr. Andrews had been pastor of the Methodist Church in Madison for the years 1889—91. The death of Annie Elizabeth Nance Cain in the second Madison train acci­ dent was tragically followed within a year or so by the accidental drowning of her only son, Robert Earl Cain Jr., in the cistern behind his father’s store on Main Street. A similar drowning of a small girl occurred just a few years afterward on the east side of Church Street in the cistern that served the house that was located in the lot now used for a paved parking north of Maple Street across from the Methodist Church. Cisterns in the town today are generally filled with dirt and leveled. In addition to two drownings and two train accidents, there were two signifi­ cant fires on Madison’s Main Street during the early 1900s. The first occurred in 1912 and burned three stores at the present sites of the D. T. Thomas store (206 Main), the Bandito Burrito (208 Main), and the unoccupied building to the east, 210 Main Street, that had been a part of the Hughes Hardware business in the late 1900s. The second Main Street fire occurred in 1942 when several west end commercial establishments were lost to flames. That blaze destroyed the Jim Williams store, a one-story frame building that housed the landmark barbershop of Bob Shelton, as well as a general merchandise store operated by D. C. Broyles and the O & B Cafe of Mrs. Willie Sexton. Fortunately, neither fire resulted in personal injury nor loss of life. In her book, Reflections of Madison, 1869—1999, Gladys True related that “the women always kept a nice pair of red pajamas in their bureau drawer so whenever there was a fire they were prepared” (to join a bucket brigade at night). Two Years to Qet a Sack o f Flour (by J. Tillman Williams Jr.) “Mr. Roland Dublin told me this about one of his brothers. They lived in the general area of Dublin Park, northeast of old Madison. About 1914 his father gave money to one of his brothers and told him to go to Madison and get a forty-eight-pound sack of flour. It was a bad day in November. On the way the son heard the train whistle and decided to run away from home. He used the money and bought a train ticket and went west. He worked in various places and various jobs for two years, then he decided to come back home, again in November. When he got off Tillman Williams Jr. the train in Madison, he remembered that his father had sent him for the flour. He purchased the flour and went home and put the flour on the kitchen table. He said that his father was in front of the fire, just as he had been two years earlier. His dad looked up and said, ‘Son, where in the w orld did you go to get that sack of flour?”’

(Note: Tillman also wrote, “. . . ‘world’ is a mild word that I am using, as I remember it might have been a stronger word. ”) 118 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

A Kidnapping in Madison (from J. Tillman Williams Jr.) Around 1942, Roland Dublin was driving south on Sullivan Street early in the morning. Where Madison Manor Nursing Home is located today, he saw a taxi containing three men on the side of the road with a tire blowout. He stopped to see if he could help. Roland told Tillman that one of the men from the taxi opened the door of his pickup truck and said, “I’ll do the driving,” as he held a pistol on Roland. The two passengers of the taxi had broken out of jail in Jas­ per, Alabama. They called a cab, then kidnapped the driver with his cab. They were headed to Chattanooga. With one outlaw at the wheel and the other in the back of Roland’s truck, they turned around and headed back through Madison with Roland and the cab driver. The outlaws drove into the mountains of Jack­ son County, Alabama, where they camped for two or three days, while holding Roland and the cab driver hostage. When they finally decided to move on, they left Roland and the cabbie in the mountains to walk out, while they drove the truck to Dalton, Georgia. There they robbed a bank, resulting in one of them being killed and the other captured. As Roland told Tillman, the outlaws were nice to him, and when they got ready to leave, they asked if he had any money. He got out his wallet to give them what he had, but they just wanted to know if he had enough for bus fare back to Madison. Of course, Roland’s family was upset because he had simply disappeared for reasons unknown to them for about three days. However, what bothered Roland most was that when they drove back through Madison, not a person noticed him riding in his own truck with three strangers, and one of them driving. He said that if he had come through town that morning with a woman other than his wife in the truck, then everybody would have noticed.

(Note: Roland Dublin was a great-grandson of James Dublin, who married Eleanor Park entrance off Old Gooch, thereby acquiring the laiid originally owned by her father, R oland Gooch, that Madison Pike contains Dublin Park today.)

“Crispy Bills"! In her book Reflectmis of Madison, 1S69- 1999, the late Gladys True wrote of Madison’s first bank robbery. She related the story as fol­ lows: “The first bank robbery occurred in 1928 at the Bank of Madison, which was run by a Mr. Riddle. Actually, what the robbers did was to break into the bank vault using a torch. Some of the money showed up later, and everyone knew it was stolen, since it bore scorch marks in various places. Walton Hughes and Tommy Christianson had heard a rumor from Huntsville that a rob­ bery was planned, so they posted themselves on the drugstore rooftop the night it was supposed Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 119

L-R: John Mullins Burton, Mr. and Mrs. L. S. Hager in doorway, Harvey Anderson 120 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

Left: 204 Main Street, site of Bank of Madison in early 1900s

Below: Main vault door, Bank of Madison Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 121 to occur, hoping to surprise the robbers. They stayed there until morning, when they were convinced the robbers had decided not to follow through with their plans. What a surprise they had when the robbers came on another night while they were at home relaxing.” The December 17, 1913 issue of the Weekly Mercury, a Huntsville newspaper, described the Bank of Madison as being “ ... now 8 years old.” The article further described the bank facility as having “ . . . a mammoth fire-proof vault contain­ ing a burglar-proof safe with a Mosler time lock. This equipment is considered absolute protection against damage by fire, dynamite or burglary, but in addition to these great precautions, this bank also car­ ries insurance against burglary, hold-up, and damage, and is protected by the Pinkerton & Company Detective Agency ...” Thomas Riddle and his son, Harry, who had houses on Church Street, operated the bank for a time. The 1913 newspaper gave the list of directors as M. H. Anderson, G. W. Wise, Herman Humphrey, T. G. Riddle, F. G. Hertzler, C. C. Green, and L. S. Hager. Wise was also the bank’s president, Green its vice president, and Hager and his wife were cashiers. In 1933 Bank cashiers Mr. and Mrs. L. S. the bank was sold to the Farmers and Merchants Bank, which evolved into a part Hager with dog, Bob, 1913 of the First Alabama Bank, now Regions Bank. It was located at 204 Main Street, which today is the office of the Madison Chamber of Commerce. The vault and its three doors with inspection stickers are still inside the building. Articles of incor­ poration of the Farmers and Merchants Bank for its first year show J. A. Kyser as president, W. B. Humphrey as vice president, and directors as J. L. Brewer, W. B. Humphrey, J. H. Cain, W. A. Whitworth, and J. A. Kyser. Each of the directors owned forty shares of the bank at $100 per share. Mayors o f Madison Conclusive documentation has not been found for every year, but old newspa­ pers, family records, city records, and other such sources used in research to date have provided the list below:

William R. Johnston, 1869 Shelby D. Lanier, 1940—1944 Thomas J. Clay, 1870 Walton (“Doc”) Hughes, 1944-1949 C. C. Gewin, 1877-1895 Howard Dublin, 1949-1950 Capt. John B. Floyd, 1896 C. F. Apperson, 1950-1957 M. Harvey Anderson, 1897 Eugene Anderson, 1957—1965 Capt. John B. Floyd, 1898—1900 E. O. Batson, 1965-1969 B. F. Harper, 1900—1901 Burwell Wilbanks, 1969—1981 Charles A. Strong, 1903—1917 Wayne Knight, 1981-1983 Jim E. Williams, 1910 Burwell Wilbanks, 1983—1988 Joel L. Brewer, 1923—1927 Teague Cuddeback, 1988—1991 Charles E. Clark, 1927 Ann Van Leeuwen, 1991—1992 Robert L. Sturdivant, 1929-1931 Chuck Yancura, 1992—2000 George D. Bronaugh, 1931 Jan Wells, 2000-2004 J. Alfred Stewart, 1932—1934 Sandy Kirkindall, 2004-current Robert L. Sturdivant, 1934-1940 122 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

There were also some indications that Elijah Thomas M artin served at some time as mayor, which could well have been the case during the 1870s. Other notables, such as George W. Martin, may likewise have served as mayor during portions of that period. The records show an overlap in the terms of Howard Dublin and Charles Apperson during the 1949—50 period. Teague Cuddeback was the first female mayor of the city. Council Members and Commissioners While records are incomplete, town or city council members and commis­ sioners have included:

Eugene Anderson William R. Johnston Matthew Harvey Anderson Kurt Keene Charles F. Apperson Arthur Holding Lewis Joseph Balch Bebe Oetjen Sam Barley Nelson Papucci D. C. Broyles Michael W. Price Len Bullington Richard F. Pride David Buschmann W. G. Pride John Cain George Quinn Monroe F. Carmichael Jim Reagan J. R. Cartwright David T. Roberts Thomas J. Clay Donald R. Sadler Jack Clift Robert F. Shelton Ernest Collier Donald Spencer L. E. Collier Donald H . Spencer Orval Cooper J. A. Stewart Gregg Curtis Marvin Stewart Seymour Doolittle Roy L. Stone Marvin E. Drake Ray Stubblefield Clyde H . Dublin James Sturdivant Howard Dublin Dr. George R. Sullivan H. T. Eustace Bish M. Tarwater George Fields Herbert L. Thornton W. T. Garner Caudis H. Tribble J. C. Gormley Robert E. True M. L. Hardage Ann Van Leeuwen James Hartley Robbin Wakefield Donald Haynes William B. Wann R. O. Hembree Sally Warden D. J. Hill Christopher Watson J. W. Hopkins Doug Westrope G. Walton (“Doc”) Hughes Marlon (Marion) Whitworth Gordon P. Hughes J. O. Wikle W. Arthur Humphrey Fred Wills Marc Jacobson George Washington Wise Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 123

Bebe Oetjen was the first female elected to public office in Madison (1983—88).

The current mayor, Sandy Kirkindall, and the City Council are owed a spe­ cial thanks for facilitating publication of this book:

Tim Cowles Steve Haraway Jerry Jennings Cynthia McCollum Tommy Overcash Larry Vannoy Bob Wagner (council president) Street Names Arnett Street has had several names, among them Wiggins Street and Deloney Street. Sullivan Street was initially part of the Huntsville-Triana Road. It later Roundhouse replica at Front became part of the Wall-Triana Highway (so named by running from the Wall and Church Streets, 2006 family community to the north down to Triana, the town on the Tennessee River that is the only place in America named for the first sailor on Columbus’ ships to spot the new lands). It is now named for longtime Madison physician George Richard Sullivan. Buttermilk Alley was given its name based on sto­ ries that Mrs. William Binford Humphrey (who lived at 23 Front Street on the east side of the alley entrance) regularly gave buttermilk and bread to hobos riding the train through Madison during the Great Depres­ sion of the 1930s. Before those days, it was known as Hobson Alley, and the Clay family deeded land for the alley to the city in 1898 with the stipulation that it be named Clay Street. The Roundhouse The Roundhouse, as it stands today, is a replica of the original, which was built in 1896. The original was on the south side of the railroad tracks, where the concrete pad east of M ain Street Cafe covers the old town well. The replica was built from original draw­ ings by volunteers in 1986 at the site of the depot as part of the Street Festival. It is maintained as the meeting place and museum for the Madison Station Historical Preservation Society. It contains historical artifacts and documents of the society, which meets at 7 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month except November and December. 124 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Left: Roundhouse replica museum display case

Below: Burton Drugstore flyer, “Okay Specific, ” from display case Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 125

Railroad Depot The Madison Station Depot was first built in the mid-1850s. It was burned in 1864 by Confederates attacking the occupying Union forces during the Civil War. A new depot was constructed in 1866, but it burned for unknown reasons. A third depot was built in 1885 and was reported to be in good condition in 1895. A final depot was erected on the site in 1901. Its use was discontinued in 1961, even though trains continued to carry the town’s mail until 1968 to a freight and passenger shed that was constructed in 1962. Depot agents included Dr. William B. Dunn (1856—71), Top: Earliest depot photo, cow W. F. Pledge, W. A. Samford, William Wingo, Berry Martin, a Mr. Jones, a in shadow of Roundhouse Mr. Simpson, Newton Jacobs (1910—16), James C. Gormley (1916—48), R. A. Above: Depot with ginger- Atchley (1948-52), and Herman Carter (1952-61). breading note train cars behind the station (at right), indicating a third set of tracks. 126 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

City Hall-Jail/M ain Street Cafe The second City Hall was located on Garner at M artin Street. It was con­ structed as a two-story building from lumber salvaged when the Madison Train­ ing School was torn down in 1936. The second story of the building housed a bedspread factory. The Camper family ran a recreation center on the first floor, which also contained the single-cell jail and the mayor’s and the town clerk’s offices. The Main Street Cafe at 101 Main Street was built in 1955 as the third City Hall. It contained two jail cells plus offices for the police chief and his deputy on the east end of the building. The center part of the building housed the town’s fire engine, which was removed for community events and during elections so that the building could also serve as the ballot place. The west end of the build­ Left: Lined up for last ing contained the mayor’s office, city clerk-treasurer’s office, water department train ride from Madison to Huntsville. Adult lady on collection clerk’s office, and the city inspector’s desk. It had a long counter to left is Mrs. (Herman) Edna Earle Hagood. 3rd girl (with white gloves) from left is Patsy Spencer; now Mrs. Ryan. 5th girl from left (facing directly into camera, with big smile and white head covering) is Margaret Sides. Shortest girl (near center, with purse hanging at her feet) is Jean Brazelton.

Right: Abandoned depot of 1960s

Bottom: Second City Hall and bedspread factory (second floor) at upper right, Martin and Gamer Streets. (Photo by Clifton Smartt in “Report on Madison County— Its History, Operation, and Finances; 143rd Anniversary; December 13, 1951” by James Record) Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 127

serve the public for licenses, requests, and complaints. Some of these functions Left: Mayor Sandy Kirkindall and offices were moved to the city swimming pool area on the west side of Sul­ (in straw hat, pointing) leading livan Street (north of the railroad and next to the fire station) when a city court a tour group past Mam Street Cafe; June 4, 2005. system was instituted. In 1990 the current City Hall was built on Hughes Road at Mill Road. Tina and Brian Bice renovated the building at 101 Main Street Right: Municipal Complex and operated a gift shop there for a short time. Since December 2000 the site (fourth City Hall) on Hughes has functioned as the popular Main Street Cafe, owned and operated by Tony Road at M ill Road and Cindy Sensenberger, who live at 17 Front Street. Patrons can still have their meals served in a jail cell if they desire. Cotton Gins Madison was home to four cotton gins: the Brewer Gin, the Home Gin Com­ pany (located east of Sullivan Street and south of Martin Street, at the machine shop location), the Planters’ Gin Company, and the Farmers’ or Whitworth Gin Company. The Brewer Gin and the Planters’ Gin were steam-operated, whereas the Farmers’ Gin was electrically operated. Whitworth/Farmers Cotton Gin Early Churches The United Methodist Church on Church Street was organized in 1828. According to Gladys True in her book Reflections o f Madison, 1869-1999, the church is the oldest in Madison and the second old­ est in the county. The building was origi­ nally constructed immediately north of Old Madison Pike and east of Hughes Road on land deeded for the purpose in 1837 by Roland and Elizabeth Gooch. Entries in the Madison County Commissioners Court 128 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Brewer Cotton Gin remnants, 2004

Methodist Church on Church Street, early 1900s

1910 Madison Methodist Church; three Madison ladies: Reion Allison, Reverend Gaston’s w ife, and daughter, Lucille, pet- back of postcard Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 129

First Baptist Church, view of east side, College Street

Minute Book for 1856—61 referred to it as “Gooches Meeting House” and the location as “Gooches Cross Roads.” It was moved in 1873 to what became Church Street in Madison by using mules to pull it on logs to the site deeded by Dr. Isaac Deloney. The church chimes that one hears today throughout the historic district were donated by Gladys True in memory of her husband, Robert True. The First Baptist Church on Sullivan Street was constructed in 1884. It was originally called the Madison Baptist Church, but the name was changed to “First Baptist” in 1968. As Gladys True recorded in her book noted above, W. F. Hafley and A. J. Hardin were among the leaders when the church was organized. A. J. Hardin was born in Kentucky in 1820. H e was ordained as a preacher in Lawrence County, Alabama, in 1866, and his tombstone in the Madison City Cemetery states that he died in 1899. Other early churches organized in Madison included an 1869 Cumberland Pres­ byterian Church that bought Lot 25. However, it sold that lot (apparently without building upon it) and met in the Masonic Hall Big Shiloh Baptist Church of Lodge 329 on the west side of Sullivan Street, according to a deed of 1870. The Presbyterians and the Masons agreed to schedule their meetings so as to avoid conflicting needs for the facility. There was also a deed for part of Lot 7 on Main Street to be the property of the Episcopal Church in 1874. After moving to Franklin (Williamson County, Tennessee), Sallie Clay and her husband, Henry (son of Thomas J. Clay), sold one and a half acres of land north of the railroad in 1878 for use by a “Colored” Primitive Baptist Church (Big Shiloh, on the north part of Maple Street today). Additionally, the original town plat filed by James Clemens’ estate in 1870 reserved Lot 41 as a “church lot.” Later deeds showed that lot as belonging to a Baptist Church, but there has been nothing yet found to indicate that a church building was ever erected on the site. A Church of Christ was also organized in 1879, constructing a building in 1881 on Maple Street. 130 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

Asbury Methodist Church on Hughes Road, photo made 2001

Grace Presbyterian Church on Wall- Triana Highway, photo made 2002

Madison Baptist Church on Balch Road, photo made 2007

Madison Bible Church on Hughes Road, photo made 2001 Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 131

Top Left: Madison Church of Christ on Hughes Road, photo made 2007

Top Right: Messiah Lutheran Church on Highway 72, photo made 2001

Middle Left: St. John’s Catholic Church on Hughes Road, photo made 2006

Middle Right: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church on Hughes Road, photo made 2002

Left: Trinity Baptist Church on Hughes Road, photo made 2006 132 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857-2007

Early Schools Among old schools in the Madison area were Madison Male and Female Academy, Madison Training School, and Binford Hill School. Bin­ ford Hill School was on the west side of Slaughter Road and north of Old Madison Pike, on land deeded in 1910 for $5 by Robert E. Camper and his wife, Marie, to the state for that purpose. Teachers included Fannie Binford, Flora Free­ man, Bessie Trotman, and others. Julius Walter Bishop drove the wagon that carried the students, with an enrollment peak of fifteen. It was a one-room school with no toilet facility, and it closed in 1917, with the students being consolidated into Madison Training School for their education. Before the deed of 1910, the school must have met somewhere else. It did exist because receipts for tuition of the children of local residents have been found dating back to 1890, when C. C. Fennell was the teacher. Madison Training School dates back before 1903. It origi­ Top: Madison Male and nally stood where the North Alabama Gas Company is today on Church Street. Female Academy Around 1908, it was rolled on logs to College Street, where it was torn down by 1936 and replaced with a brick building. Madison Male and Female Academy Above: Back entrance to Madison Training School, goes back to 1884, but it was incorporated in 1885. It was located west of Sul­ basketball goal at right livan Street on the east side of Pension Row and immediately south of High Street. Madison Mayor John B. Floyd owned the building, and when the trust­ Below: Madison Training ees argued about allowing Floyd’s young daughter, Elizabeth, to teach, he closed School, early 1900s to 1936 the school. Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 133

Madison School from 1936 (Photo by Percy B. Keel)

Columbia Elementary School, photo made 2007

Discovery Middle School, photo made 2007

Heritage Elementary School, photo made 2001 134 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

Right: Liberty Middle School, photo made 2002

Below: Horizon Elementary School, photo made 2007

Middle: Rainbow Elementary School, photo made 2002

Bottom: West Madison Elementary School, photo made 2007 Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 135

Oldest House The cabin of james F. Bailey served as an inn and the first stage stop along the route from Huntsville to Mooresville (in Limestone County) in the early 1800s. The structure was a two-story log cabin, and it still stands today. However, it is incorporated within the modern house owned by veterinarian Dr. Charles Whit­ worth. The cabin was likely built while the land was still Indian territory, but James quickly legitimized his holdings on the first day of legal purchase, February 3, 1818. James and his bride, Sarah Johnston, were both born in Ireland, where they married. They emigrated to Virginia and moved to Madison County by way of Tennessee, where the first of their ten children was born in 1809. Their children connected by marriages into Madison families with surnames of Dillard, Gooch, Tribble, Crutcher, Landers, Vaughn, Bledsoe, Smith, Abernathy, Blackburn, Word, Looney, and Bibb— the latter being the descendants of the second governor of the state. It was James’ brother, David Bailey, who moved here with him and deeded land for the Salem Baptist Church in 1818, making it one of the earliest Baptist Bailey Cabin Churches in north Alabama. The deed states that the church land was on “Funnel Creek,” which recent research has shown to be today’s Dry Creek branch of Indian Creek, running through the Providence development north of Highway 72 and crossing Old Monrovia Road. James and David Bailey also brought their father, Moses Bailey, to the area with them. Moses was one of the Revolutionary War soldiers buried in the area, believed to be interred with an uninscribed tombstone in the middle of the Bailey Cemetery on James’ land. Legendary Settlers of Antiquity There are some extensive, widely documented and well-supported legends that the white settlers of the early 1800s were pre-dated by others arriving in the area about 600 years earlier. Zella Armstrong published in 1950 a thorough compilation of research into the basis of the stories of a colony from Wales that came to America in 1170. In the book Who Discovered America?, Zella tells of Welsh Prince Madoc who sailed into Mobile Bay in 1170 with 10 shiploads of followers. (The DAR emplaced a marker at Fort Morgan to denote the residence of Madoc’s colony in the area.) After wintering in the lower bay area at “Dog River” (originally called the “Mad Dog” River and thought to be a phonetic misinterpretation of “Madoc”, as told by the Indians to the Spanish, who in turn provided the name to the first permanent white settlers of that area), the Welshmen moved up the Alabama river system to eventually build stone-walled fortifica­ tions in DeKalb County and in the area around what is now Chattanooga. The walls that they built closely resemble those commonly found in the British Isles. Ancient iron farming implements have been found in caves of north Alabama and south-central Tennessee that had been modified to interconnect and provide safe domiciles. There are several similar mysterious rock walls to be found also in Madison County, including one on Rainbow Mountain in Madison. 136 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

The legend of Madoc and his followers as documented by Zella Armstrong and others indicates that the Welshmen were driven from the area after living in the region perhaps several hundred years by the intruding Cherokee Indians as that tribe moved westward from the Carolinas. According to Cherokee accounts related to the governor of Tennessee in the 1700s, Madoc’s people (known to the Cherokee as a tribe of “White Indians from a land far to the east, over the great waters”) built boats and retreated down the Tennessee River. As they gave way to the Cherokee over a period of years, they perhaps stopped to dwell for a while in the Madison County area, where stone­ walled fortifications were constructed on the tops of low mountains that had water sources. As described in an article of the Huntsville Times newspaper of September 11, 1989, when the Welshmen eventually reached the Ohio River, some of them built an almost inaccessible fortress of huge unmortared flat rocks on an island of that river, 14 miles upstream from Loiusville, Kentucky, and about 3 miles east of Charleston, Indiana. Here they were finally exterminated or assimilated by the local tribes after a fierce battle. It was reported that in 1799 early settlers of that area found 6 skel­ Rock wall on east rim of Rainbow etons wearing breastplates with a Welsh coat of arms, that a tombstone bearing Mountain averages three feet above the date of 1186 was found in the area, and other artifacts such as Roman coins and below ground level. No known were discovered, along with many more unexplained historical mysteries. In fact, record or living person attests to a Roman coin was found in the 1800s about 6 feet underneath the ground in who built the w all — when, why, or how. Fayetteville, Tennessee, according to Armstrong’s book. Just as some of the Welshmen retreating from south-central Tennessee went up the Ohio River, some of the Welshmen moved down the Mississippi River and into the Missouri River system, traveling to near its headwaters. There they built villages that were surrounded by sharpened wooden poles for defensive stock­ ades, and they constructed round boats for fishing in the river. The only other place in the world where such boats were used was in Wales, according to Zella Armstrong’s book. The people became known as the Mandan (“Madoc” varia­ tion?) Indians, and they were recorded as typically having blue eyes. Their physical features and living conditions were fully documented by Lewis and Clark, who twice were welcomed and stayed in the Mandan villages in the winters 1804 and 1805. Additionally, these “White Indians” were recorded as having great respect for the crucifix and possessing a “holy book” of leather-bound written scraps. The existence of ancient rock walls on low mountain tops in Madison County and the numerous independent legendary accounts of the migration of the Welshmen / “White Indians” strongly indicate that the Madison area was a for a time the home of some Europeans who pre-dated Columbus by about 300 years in America. Rainbow Mountain The “mountain” rises to a peak elevation of about 1150 feet from the average of 650 feet above mean sea level for Madison’s historic district. While that 500- foot difference may not be numerically impressive compared with other mountainous regions of the country, it does provide some unusual and beautiful scenery for Chapter Four: True Tales & Tidbits 137

this area. Much of the mountain has been preserved by the Land Trust of Huntsville & North Alabama, with assistance from such organizations as Madison Greenways & Trails, the Sierra Club, and the Boeing Company. The undeveloped areas include marked trails of various lengths, which reveal a wide variety of plant and animal life, along with scenic overlooks of the areas around the mountain. Even before driving up the steeper slopes to the sum­ mit plateau, the unique “hooded monk” formation is seen on the south side of Thomas Drive at the junction with Griggs Road. Just below the peak, on the west side of the mountain loop trail and within a quarter mile of the park­ ing area, is the only Balanced Rock formation in the region. There are numerous Mike and Rachel Doherty with boulders to climb, as well as trails that pass through small canyons of rock forma­ son, Zack, and daughter, M ad tions on the top of the mountain. Along the trails are found a number of springs die, at Balanced Rock, January 2007. and small waterfalls that vary with rainfall and water table levels. Best of all, the entire mountain lies within the city limits of Madison, providing a truly conve­ nient nearly vertical park or “escape to nature” from any point within minutes.

City Parks There are a number of community parks throughout the city, but the two major parks serving the citizenry are Dublin Park on the east side and Palmer Park on the west side. Dublin Park is named after Clyde Dublin, whose widow donated the land to the city for the purpose of providing such a facility. As mentioned ear­ lier, the Dublin family came into possession of the land when James Dublin married Eleanor Gooch, daughter of Roland Gooch, who was the first owner of record. Dublin Park has an indoor heated swim­ ming pool and an outdoor pool for summer use. It also has tennis courts and soccer fields, as well as a “Kid’s Kingdom” playground for the younger set. Each year, a spectacular city-sponsored fireworks display is held in the park on July 4th, and Scottish Highland Games have been held in the park for a number of years. Palmer Park on the west side of town is named after Samuel Palmer and his family, who owned the land and operated a grapevine and fruit tree nursery there until the last of the line in this area passed away. Today the park is used primarily tor baseball (many fields) and soc­ Anna Claire Melson watching cer. There are also batting practice cages and a child playground area, along with twins Alex and Geoffrey (right) three large concession and restroom buildings. Rankin at K id’s Kingdom, July 2003 Just east of the Madison city limits is the Indian Creek Greenway, where a paved bicycle and walking trail winds along and over the creek for several miles. The creek is the site of one of the battles of the area during the Civil War, but today it provides great scenery and a convenient place to fish in the deeper pools. -- ‘Epilogue

ur area pioneers stopped their trek westward when they found ideal conditions here. Today’s citizens likewise have a wide choice of areas to reside, but more than 37,000 people have chosen Madison. The populationO of the city is growing at a rate of about 5 percent per year. In addi­ tion to its ranking among the highest academically in Alabama, the city’s Bob Jones High School was classified as the largest in the state, with 1,751 students in grades ten to twelve, according to an article on page M5 of the July 19, 2006, Huntsville Times. The median age of city residents is only thirty-three, with more than 11,000 under the age of eighteen. About 70 percent of Madison residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher, while about 60 percent are in professional or management occupations. It is indeed the kind of place that not only appeals physically, but also in terms of demographics when selecting neighborhoods and associated cultural ambiance. The labors of the early settlers have come to frui­ tion in developing the area into a premier habitation for today’s generation. The contents of this book can serve as an introduction to the interconnected historic families of Madison, but there are many more known stories to tell. A number of additional stories and much research data have been compiled into the Madison Memories Collection CD-ROM series of the Madison Station Historical Preser­ vation Society for future generations. While the pioneers were connected to one another by marriages and to national figures by kinship, today our population is connected worldwide by marriage, immigration, occupation, and Internet. A high mark has been set for future generations to match in the next 150 years. May they do as well. Index

A Barley, Sam 122 Bressie, Frances 60 (“Lizzie”) 47; James (“Jim ”) Abernathy, E tta Imogene 56, H enry 46-7, 78, 83, 100, 121; 58—9; Jesse 71, 100; Sarah 71; Batson, E. O. 121 Brewer, Alice Elizabeth 64-5; Ivey 47; John Slaughter 46, 122; Sarah Bailey 71 Joe Allen 64; Joel Lee 63—4, Lena M artin 47, 109; Lottie T. Beard, Lou Ann 49 121; John 23; John Norm an Slaughter 46, 78; Lucille 46; Alford, Sally 70 64; Katie Ashford Watkins 64; M artha Ann 47; M ary Ann Beasley, Lynda 43 Martha Kathryn 64; Mary Alice Parham 70; Mollie 47; Robert Allen, E . B. 100; Elizabeth C. McCutcheon 64; Mary Belle Parham 47, 111, 116—7; Robert Parham 70; Thomas F. 70 Beavers, William 100 Smith 64; Robin 34; Samuel 23; Earl 47, 109-10; Thomas 47, Watkins Lee 64 70,100 Best, James 105; M ort 107; Allison, Charity 72; Reion 128 Rebecca Rodman 105 Brockway, Francis A. 101-2, 105; Caldwell, Joseph W. 55 Anderson, Annie H ertzler 38; Icymenda Dedman 101; Louise Eugene (“Gene”) 72, 95, 121-2; Betts, Charles Edward 13, 68, 104; 107 Cambell, Fannie Bradford 42 Edward Chambers 68, 104; Gordon 60, 98, 110; John 29; M artha Cousins Chambers 68; Larry 72; Marion Hughes 72, B ronaugh,____31; Annie M ae Camp, James W. 76 M aude M inor Broun 68; Sallie 95; M atthew H arvey 38, 45, 79, 45; F. B. 100; George D. 121; LeRoy 68; Tancred 68—9; 119, 121-2; W alt 72 James F. 100; John S. 100 C am per,____126; Amanda Virginia Augusta Swope 68 Carnes 78—9; Am anda M . 78; Broyles, D. C. 117, 122; John C. Andrews, Allen Louis 116—7; Benjamin Franklin 47, 78, 100; Bibb, Benjamin 17; Elizabeth 100 Hassie M artin 116—7; W illiam Benjamin L. 78; Blooming Alford 70; James Edward 70; 116-7 Goodner (“D une”) 78—9; Fannie James Henry 17, 29, 55, 69, 70, Brown (Broun), Gary 41; Jeff Freeman 79; Fred O. 47; George 100; Laura Dillard 70; Porter 105; Apperson, Bettie 48; Charles 48; Maude Minor 68; Pat 41, 78; Jordan H. 78—9; Julius Rebecca 32, 70; Sally Alford 70; 48; Sallie Fleming 68; William Ford 121-2, 55, 95, 122; Dora W alter 8; M arie 132; M usa Sarah Kate 70; Thomas 14, 17—8, LeRoy 68 Cain 48; Dorothy 47; James Dora 78; Permelia M cC rary 47; 105; William 17, 70 C. 47—8; Jediah 47; Kathleen Robert E. 79, 132; Robert Isaac Bryant, Frances Thornton 62; (“Naneen”) 48, 70; Kathleen 78; Simon 78; Susan Glass 78; Bice, Brian 127; Tina 127 H um phrey 47—8, 70; M aria 47 J. W. 32; Nancy Kathryn 61; Vossie 78; W illiam Olin 78-9 Stephen H. 62; Susan 32 Binford, Fannie 132 Armstrong, Jane 34 Canterbury, Ada 107; Balden Bullington, Len 122 107; Clifton 110; H enry 107; Bishop, Julius W alter 132; A rn ett,____60 M ary Jane 105; Thomas 100; M arion A. 59, 100 Burnam, James F. 45 W illiam J. 13, 100, 110 Ashford, Jim 113; M attie C. 54 Bizwell, Sarah 67 Burton, Francis (“Fannie”) East Capshaw, David 13; William 13 42; George O. 100; James 100; Atchley, R. A. 125 Blackburn,____60, 68, 135; John Mullins 41-2,47, 119, 124; Carmichael, Monroe F. 122 David 67 John W inston 42, 100, 113; B Mollie Cain 47; Nina 42; Carnes, Amanda 78—9 Bailey, David 135; Elijah 27, 58; Blackwell, Ann 18; Joseph 18; Thomas O. 100 Hezekiah 19; Ida 107; James M artha 18; Samuel 18; W illiam Carter, H erm an 125; Tom 41 E . H . 27-8, 58; James F. 52, H enry 18 Burtwell, Col. 104 71, 135; M artha 52; M artha A. Cartwright, Hezekiah Bradley Vaughan 27, 58; Moses 19, 135; Bledsoe, Anthony 51; Benjamin 13 Burw ell,____ 43 52, 58, 69; J. R. 122; John 13, Sarah 71; Sarah Johnston 135 58, 69; M artha (“M attie”) 58; Bradford, Emma L. 42; Fannie Buschmann, David 122 M artha A. Vaughan Bailey 27, B alch,___ 60; Hezekiah J. Burton 42, 45; H am ilton G. 58; M ary 59; O rrie 58 71—2; Joseph 122; Sam 42; 26—9, 32; Juanita 42; M ary 48, Butler, Amanda 64, 67 Tabitha Vaughn 71-2 98; Thomas Logan 42 Chamberlain, Elizabeth 50

Bankhead, Tallulah 66; William Brandon, Frank 48; Marthy A. 48 C Chambers, Henry 68; Martha Cain, Annie Elizabeth Nance 66 Cousins 68 116—7; Annie Sue 47; Elizabeth Brazelton, Jean 126 140 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

Chapman, Reuben 18 Crutcher,____ 17, 62, 135; A. B. E Forrest, Nathan Bedford 104, 100; Joe 100; Reuben 13 111, 113 Chatterton, Kay 41; Neil 41 Cuddeback, Teague 121-2 Fow ler,____67 Chilton, Sarah Orrick 18 Curtis, Gregg 122; Jane 27, 33; John 100 Fowlkes, William 100 Christianson, Tommy 118 Custis, Daniel Parke 59, 108; Frazier, Octavia Fletcher 103 Early, Cyntha 68; Jubal 68 Clark, Charles E. 121; George Jane 27, 33; M artha Dandridge Rogers 59; Narcissa L orinda 61; 17, 27, 59 Freeman, C. D. 100; Fannie 79; East, William 110 W illiam 59 Flora 132; Thomas 12

D Ennis, R. P. 100 Clay, Andrew J. 34, 43, 70, 100; Frost, Mary Margaret Lanier 49 Dandridge, John 17; Martha Clement Claiborne 17; Clement 27, 108 Eustace, H. T. 122 Comer 14, 17, 60; Edward 43; Fannie 43; H enry 34, 43, 129; G Darwin, Evelyn 72—3; Darwin 72 Garner, James 13; Katie 67; Jane E. 27-8, 43; John G. 43; F William T. 100, 122 John Withers 60; Mary F. Lewis Farley, Frances L orinda 61; Davis, Jefferson 17; Joe 72 60; Nancy Webb 34; Oliver P. James W. 100; Joseph Bruce Garrett, Levi 59; Nina Lewis 59 43; Sallie 129; Sarah A. 27, 33-4, 61-2; Michael 13-4, 17; Nancy Deadman (Dedman), Icymenda 43, 69, 70; Susannah Withers 60, Hesseltine Gillespie (“Miss 101; Phillip 101 Gaston, Lucille 128; Wife of 66; Theodorick S. 26—8, 34—5, Hessie”) 61; Pryor Bailey 41; Reverend 128 43, 100; Thomas J. 25, 27-9, 34-5, Sarah 59 Deloney, Isaac H . 27, 32, 38, 129 39, 43,45, 100, 121-2, 129 Gates, Stephen 48 Farrald,____60; John W. 79, 100 Dent, Julia 19; Mary Harrison 19 Clemens, James 9, 12, 20—6, 33, Gewin, Christopher C. 27, 121 3 5-7,42,45 129; Jeremiah 21, Fearn, Thomas 52 D ickson,____49; M ary 50; 26; Samuel 21 W illiam 50 Gilbert, Mary Humphrey F ennell,____49; C. C. 132; Crownover 8, 60; Thomas H . 53 Clift, J. T. 41; Jack 91, 122; C. G. 59; Charlotte 76; Francis D illard ,____60, 135; Catherine John H . 100; Lillian 91 73; Isham J. 75—6; James W. 73; 70; James L. 100; James Q. 100; G illespie,___ 17, 49; Annie Temperance Jordan 76 Joshua 70; Laura 70 Floyd 109; Campbell Milton Clinton, Arabella 50; Richard 50 61-2, 100, 109; Clark Patton 61; Fields, George 122 Dodd, Thomas 13 George S. 19, 61; James 61; John C lutts,____ 60; William E. 100 61; Nancy Hesseltine (“Miss Finney, Annie Mae Bronaugh Doherty, M addie 137; M ike 137; Hessie”) 61; Narcissa Elizabeth Cobb, Amanda Camper 78, 114; 45; Frank 45 Rachel 137; Zack 137 61; Narcissa L orinda Clark 61, Bryant 78, 114; W. R. W. 78 109; Philander 61; Samuel C. 61, Fitts (Fitz), Christopher 23; Doolittle, Seymour M. 26, 31-2, 100; Samuel E dgar 19; W. C. Collier,____ 18,45, 63, 100; Elijah M . 28; Jesse 13, 110; 59, 70, 122; Indiana 32 (“Bill”) 55, 62; W illiam 61; Edward L. 45; Eliza 18; Lydia Pass 23 W illiam Harvey 109 Elizabeth 19; Ernest 122; Douglass, John 45; Lucy 45; Eugene J. 41; H enry W atkins Fleming, Sallie 68 Mary Ann 46; W. M. 100 Glass, Susan 78; Vincent 78 19; James 19; Lemuel E . 45, 122; Mary Dent 19; Thomas Bouldin Fletcher,____60; Algernon Drake, Annie Mae Humphrey Gooch, Eleanor 118; Elizabeth 19; Woodie L. 45; W yatt 19 Sydney 100, 103; Eldred 109; 43, 110; Billy Nolan 41; M arvin 127; Nathaniel Matson 19; Elizabeth Floyd 109; James 43, 122; Nolan 41, 45; Willie Kate Roland 13, 19, 118, 127 Cook, John P. 100 Nicholas 103; M ary (“Tee”) Williams 41 66; Octavia 66, 103; P. R. 39; Gormley, James C. 122, 125 Cooley, Phillip 100 Richard M atthew 66, 76, 100, DuArmond, Emily 76 103-4, 109, 113 G raham ,____60; Julia 105 Cooper, Charity Allison 72-3; Dublin, Clyde H . 41, 122; James 72-3; Orval 62, 122; Florence, Porter F. 45 Eleanor Gooch 118; Howard W. Grant, Julia Dent 19; Ulysses S. 19 Nancy Thornton 62 41, 55, 121—2; James 118; Roland Floyd, Annie West 109; Charles 117-8; Wesley 59 Gravitt, William 100 Cowles, Tim 1, 123 Anderson 108; Charles Perkins 109; Elizabeth H arris 109, 132; Dunn, Jackie G. 36; William B. Gray, David 19; Eleanor Crenshaw, William T. 13 Ellen Stith 109; Florence Lee 27-8,36,38-40, 125 W ardrobe 19, 67; Ellen Jane 67; 109; Frances Maria 108-9; Ida James 19; Jane 19; Joseph 19; Cosby, John W. 27 Isabel 109; John Buchanan 59, Dunnivant, William T. 35 Nancy 67; Pleasant 19; Rebecca 100, 107-9, 114, 121, 132; 67; Thomas 19; W illiam 19, 67 Crownover, M ary Humphrey 8, 60 Mittie Sherrod 109; Nathaniel Bedford 108; Nathaniel Wilson 107; Nicholas Jackson 107-8; Nicholas Nathaniel 109; Schuyler Harris 109

Ford, Laura Prudence America 54; M arena Jane Saluter 53 Index 141

Green, C. C. 121; O rtis 55; Hilson, Alice Elizabeth Brewer Jacobs, Newton 125 Williametta 53; Burwell 50—1; William G. 42 64—5; Brian 64; Henry Lee 64 Burwell Clinton 17, 50-6, 59, 100; Jacobson, Marc 122 Clint 43; David Shelby 48—9, 55; G urley,____60H H o b b s,____60 Elizabeth Chamberlain 50; Elsie Jefferson, Thomas 59, 72 55; Felix Robertson 52, 55; Fulton Holding, Richard 58 Clement 55; Helen Virginia 55; Jennings, Jerry 1, 123 Isaac 50; Isaac Alexander 50—2, H afley,____31-2; Ellie 47; Hood, John Bell 104 54—6, 59, 100; Isaac H ill 50; John W. F. 129; W illiam L . 47, 110 Johnson, Ada Elizabeth 48, 54; 48, 50; John Ford 48, 54-5; John Hopkins, Frank 109; Ida Floyd Dorothy Scott 19 Fulton 54; John Logan 48-9, 111; H agar, L . S. 119, 121 109; J. W. 122; M ary H arris Joseph B. 54; Katherine Elizabeth 109; Thomas H . 109 Johnston, E. D. 78; Sarah 135; 54; Kathryn Watley 49; Laura Hagood, Edna Earle 126 W illiam R. 28, 121—2 Celest 53; Laura Prudence 55; Hughes, Barbara Ann 57—8; Laura Prudence America Ford Hailey, Gene 19 Edm und James 71—2; Ella 71; Jones,__ _ 125; Billy J. 40; 54-5; Lou Ann Beard 49; Lucy George Walton (“D oc”) 57, 63, Frances Barbour 108-9; John Corinne 53; Marena Jane Saluter Hallmark, George 34 72, 113, 118, 121-2; Gordon 108; John N. S. 13; Nancy Jane Ford 53; M argaret Troy 55; Pelham 58, 71, 122; Howard H . 40; Orlando 108; Pat 73,76 Martha Kathryn Brewer 64; Mary Halsey, Martha Ann Cain 71; John Abernathy 71—2; John G. Bradford 48, 98; M ary Dickson 47; Samuel 59; W illiam J. 47; 100; Laura Vaughn 71-2; L uther Jo rd an ,____49, 60; Bartholomew 50; M ary Lucilla 55; M ary William L. 53 72; Marion P. 72; Mattie Belle 76; Elizabeth 50; Temperance 76 Margaret 49; M ary (“Mollie”) 58; Nannie Vaughn 71; Robert L. Shelby 53; M ary Shelby M cCrabb Haraway, Steve 1, 123 71; Sarah Abernathy 71; Sarah Jourden, John 49 50, 52, 54, 59; Mattie C. Ashford Parham 72; Yancey 72 54; Milton H arris (“Pete”) 55; H a rd a g e ,____115; M . L. 122 Rena Roper 53; Sampson 50; K Humphrey, Ann Russell 45; Annie Shelby D. 121; Sidney 49; Thomas Kannapel, Patrick 41; Tamara 41 H ard im an ,____110 Mae 43, 110; Bennie 43, 110; Cora 49, 50; William 50; William M ae Lewis 59, 98; David 45; Henry 50, 53, 55, 59 Kay, A. V. 55 H ardin, A. J. 100, 129 Edmund 45; Elizabeth (“Lizzie”) Cain 47; Flavins J. 45-7; J. H . 100; Larkin, Rhonda 8 Keel, Percy Brooks 4, 8, 58, 63, H arper, B. F. 100, 109, 121 Henry 110; Herman (Hermon) 43, 133; Ralph (“Buddy”) 63; Viola 64,98, 121; James 46; James A. 59, Lea, Charity Allison Cooper 73; Styles 63 H arris, Algernon S. 38—9, 104; 100; James E. 45; James Hermon Houston H. 73 Henry 49; Frances Maria 108-9; 59; James L. 47; John 46; John Keene, Kurt 122 Joseph B. 73; Lucy 104, 109; Longstreet 47; Kathleen 47; Lucy Lee, H arry 109; Robert E. 59, M ary 109; Sally 60; Thomas B. Douglass 45; M ary Ann Douglass 105, 108-9 Kelley, Sarah 41 100,109 8, 60; M ary Frances 8, 60; Minnie 46; Nancy Wade Parham 43, 98; Leeman, Nancy 66, 115 Kelly,____100 Hartley, James 122 Nora Sullivan 115; Phillip 115; Sarah Blankenship 45; W. Arthur Lewis, A rthur H olding 41, Kirkindall, Sandy 1, 121, 123, 127 Harvey, Inez Sullivan 115; 122; William Binford 43,45, 98, 58-60, 100, 122; Cora M ae Thomas Milton 115 110, 121, 123; Willie 46 59; David 60; Edward 60; Etta Knight, Wayne 121 Imogene Abernathy 56, 58—9; Hawkins, Benjamin 12 Humphreys, John 13 Frances Bressie 60; Herman K u rtz,____45 (Hermon) Arthur 56, 58-9; Haynes, D onald 122 Hundley, O rvil M . 59, 100 James 59—60; James H erm on 59; Kyser, James Allen 38, 40, 45, 121 Lawrence 59; Martha (“Mattie”) Hembree, R. O. 122 Hussey, Edmund L. 70; Elijah Belle 58; Martha (“Mattie”) 13; Elizabeth Alford Bibb 70; L Cartwright 58-9; Mary F. 60; Hertzler, Annie 38, 98; Daniel Stephen 70 Lacy, Ann Marie 73 Meriwether 59; Meriwether 98; Ellen Floyd 109; Frank G. Anderson 59—60; Nancy Watkins 41, 45, 114, 121; John 38, 45, 98, Hymer, Blufford 100 L an d ers,____135 59; Nathaniel 60; Nicholas 59; 108-9; M ary 98 Nina 59; Oscar Bradley 59; Landman, Sara 33; William 33 Robert 59; Sally Harris 60 I Hewlett, Gilbert 15 Ingersoll, L aura 50 Lanford, M artha 76; M ary 76; Lifichar, Carbri (King of H ill, D .J. 122; Rosa 111; Robert 74, 76; W illiam 76, 78 Ireland) 68 Irvin, James 67 W illiam W. 100, 111 L anier,____14, 17; Ada Elizabeth Lipscomb, John T. 58—9, 71, 100; Isom, J. W. 100 H illia rd ,____60; J. W. 100; Johnson 48, 54; Ada Lorena 55; O rrie Cartwright 58; Richard 58; Phil H. 100 Alice Louisa 55; Andrew 64; Sarah 58 J Annie Newman Troy 55; Arabella Jackson, T. J. (“Stonewall”) 107 50; Arabella Clinton 50; Birdie 142 Memories of Madison: A Connected Community, 1857—2007

Long, Mary Margaret Lanier Meriwether, Lucy 59; Nicholas 59 Pledge, W. F. 125 R obbins,____45 Frost 49 Mertz, Mrs. 56 Pocahontas 66 Robinson, Martha 70; Rebecca 70 Looney, Absalom 51; Frank 52; John W arren 51—2; Louisa 51; Miller, M aryE. Ill Polk, James Knox 113 Roberts, David T. 122 Robert 51 Mitchell, Daniel 13 Pope,____49,66; Annie 50; LeRoy Roddey, General 101, 104 Love, Rebecca Gray 67; W. R. 100 76; Micajah N. 27, 33; W illie 15 Rodman, Annie 107; James 105; M o o n ,____60 Nannie Nale 105, 107; M ary Jane Lowe, J. H . 100 Powers, I. H . 100 Canterbury 105; Rebecca 105; Monroe, David 13 Simon 105, 107; W. T. 107 Price, Michael W. 122 M M oore, Moses 66 Russell, Ann 45; Lorenzo 76; Madoc (Prince of Wales) 135 Pride, Alexander 67; Amanda M artha Lanford 76 Mosely, Thomas T. 13; Butler 64, 67-8; A rthur P. 45; M anning, James 13 W illiam S. 13 Burton 67; Eleanor Gray 67; Ryan, Patsy Spencer 126 Ellen Jane Gray 67; Emma 64; Martin, Berry Leeman 63-4, James Harvey 64, 67—8, 100, 115-6, 125; E dm und (“N ed”) N S 104; James Wilsey 67, 69; Katie 28, 32, 35—7; Elijah Thomas 47, Nail (Nale), Nannie 105; W. T. Sadler, Donald R. 122 Garner 67; Katie M ason 67; 49, 58, 100, 109-13, 122; Francis 100 M ary Fletcher 66-7, 69; M ary 23; Frank Ephraim 110; George Samford, W. A. 125 Jane 67; M argaret 67; M artha W ashington 23—5, 27, 29, 33, Nance, Andrew J. 100; Annie 67; Rebecca Gray Love 67; 63-4, 66, 100, 110, 115, 122; Elizabeth 116—7; James R. 100; Sampieri, Carl 57 Richard Fletcher 69, 122; Sallie Hassie 116—7; Hattie 117; Helen Jonathan W. 100; Robert W. 100 LeRoy Betts 68; Sarah Bizwell Virginia Lanier 55; Henry 48, Sanders, Annie E. Wiggins 38 67; Thomas 67; W alter 67; 110; J. R. 55; Jesse 23, 110; John F. Nix, Joe 53 William 67—8; W illiam G. 67, 100; Lena 47, 109, 111; Logan Sanderson, Cindi 8 122; W illiam Thomas 41, 66—7, East 115; Lucinda 35; M artha Nola, Charles 90; Frank 91 69; Wilsey 47, 100; Wilsey F. 40; (“Mattie”) Caruthers 64; Mary Schiffman, Solomon 73 Wilsey J. 67 Miller 111; Nancy Leeman 66, O 115; Richard 23, 110; Rosa Hill Scruggs, George 73; Gross 13 Oetjen, Bebe 122-3 P riest,____13; Bob 11 111; Sallie M . 28; Sarah 35; Sophronia Parvin 111; Thomas Sensenberger, Cindy 20, 40, 127; Opheim, Dennis 42 Prosser, Lt. Col. 104 23; Thomas W. 23; William 13 Tony 40, 127

Overcash, Tommy 1, 123 Pruett, Joseph 48 M ason, Katie 67 Sexton, Willie (Mrs.) 117

Pruitt, Ranee 8, 46 Matthews, O. K. 63; Thomas 13 P Shelby, Isaac 51; John 51; Louisa Palmer, Osiah 105; Samuel 105-6 Looney 51 Maulsby, Minnie 46 Q Papucci, Nelson 122 Q uinn, George 122R Shelton, Robert F. 117, 122 M axw ell,____60, 68; John 67; M argaret Pride 67 Parham, Elizabeth Bibb Hussey Sherrod, Mittie 109 70; Elizabeth Cassandra 70; M cCaa, M ildred M arie 8, 144 Hezekiah N. 43, 45; M ary Ann Sides, Margaret 126 70; Nancy B. 45; Nancy Wade McCollum, Cynthia 1, 123 43; Robert W. 100; Sarah 72; Sim pson,___ 125 W illiam 70 McCrabb, Louisa Shelby 51; Sims Settlement 11 M ary Shelby 50 Parvin, Sophronia E. Ill S laughter,____ 19; James 13; M cCrary, Permelia 47 Pass, Richard 23; William 23 John R. 46, 76, 78, 104; Lottie T. 46, 78; M ary Lanford 46, 76, 78; McCutcheon, Mary Alice 64 Patterson, Benjamin 26; Josiah William 13 101-2 McElhaney, David 25—6 S m ith,____13, 31, 135; John 66; Pepper, Samuel A. 28 M ary Belle 64; Querlan 66 McFarlen, Gladys Naomi 62 Pickett, Martin 18; Anna Corbin Sparkman, John 72; Robert E. M cG aha,____60, 62 18; Felicia Chilton 18; John Scott 43, 46; Robert W. 43 18; Sarah 18; Sarah Virginia 18; Melson, Anna Claire 137 Steptoe 14, 18; William 18

Rainboll (Rainbolt), Elisha 13, 110

Rankin, Alex 137; Geoffrey 137; Ivey Cain 47; James Cofelt Mitchell 105; James L. 47; John Patrick 3, 4, 6, 52, 58, 144; Julia Graham Windes 105; Mildred M arie McCaa 8, 144

Reagan, Jim 122

Reavis,____60

Riddle, Harry 56-7, 118, 121; Thomas G. 56, 118, 121; Readus (Redus) 55, 63

Rison, Archie 53 Index 143

Spencer, Barbara Ann Hughes Toney, H arris 100; H ugh L. Ward, William 101-2 M attie L. 41; M attie W hitworth 57; Don 58, 122; Donald H . 58, 100; John M . 100; M argaret 59 40-1; Willie Kate 41 122; Patsy 126 Warden, Sally 122 Triana 13, 18,23,40,47-8,52, Wills, Fred 122 Spragins, James Bibb 70; James 58,60,101-2,123 Wardrobe, Eleanor 19 Robert 70; Sallie K. Bibb 70; Windes, Francis 104—5; Julia Stith B. 13 Tribble, Caudice (Caudis) H. 55, W ashington, Elizabeth 50; Graham 105 63, 122; Robert 1). 100 George 12, 17, 43,49, 59, 108; Steadman, Jeanne 6, 8, 46; Stan 46 John 50; Martha Dandridge Wingo, William 125 T rim ble,____13 Custis 17, 27, 59, 108; Richard 50 Stew art,____19; J. Alfred 121-2; Wise, George Washington 42, M arvin 122 Tripp, Thomas H . 100 Watkins, Elizabeth Thornton 61; 64, 109, 113, 117, 121-2; H attie Emma Pride 64, 66; Everett 60; 117; Hibernia 109; James A rthur Stone, James Hugh 64; Mattie T rotm an,____17, 62; Bessie Hugh A. 62; James Albert 59, 104, 109; Lucy H arris 104, 109 Eleanor Watkins 64; Roy L. 132; Samuel 67; Sarah 59; 64, 66; John 66; Joseph 66; Katie 46,122 Yancy P. 100 Ashford 64; Martha (“Mattie”) W ithers,____19; John 13-4, Caruthers Martin 64, 66; Mattie 17, 60; Susannah Claiborne 17, Strain, Merry Lane 48 Troy, Annie Newman 55 Eleanor 64; Mattie Lee Strong 60,66 66; Nancy 59 S tro n g ,____31,60, 101; True, Beverly Ruth 63; Eleanor Womack, J. B. 62; Nancy Charles A. 32, 121; James A. 32, Ann 63; Gladys McFarlen 4, Watley, Kathryn 49 Thornton 62 70; Maggie 32; Mattie Lee 66 62-3, 117-8, 127, 129; Robert Edgar (“P ud”) 55, 62-3, 122, 129 Watson, Christopher 122 Wood, Samantha 88, 95; Sarah 88 Stubblefield, Ray 122 Tuck, Dora Cain Apperson 48; Webb, Nancy 34; Robertson 34; W o rd ,____135 Sturdivant (“Studdivant”), James M arcus 48 Wiley 34 122; John J. 26,31, 100; Robert L. W ynn, Helen Lanier 55; John 121; W .C . 100 Turner, Bettie 36, 38—9 Wells, Charles R. 99; Jan 121 Robert 55; Laura Prudence Lanier 55 Westrope, D oug 122 Sullivan, Charles 114; George 114; V George Richard 27, 113—5, 122-3; Van Leeuwen, Ann 121—2 Y Henrietta 114; Inez 115; Irma 115; Whatley, Ann 69; Lynda Beasley Yancey, Sarah Elizabeth 71 Isaac 114; Jessie 114; Katie 114; 43; Phil 69; Rodney 43 Vannoy, L arry 1, 123 Marietta 114; M ary 114; Nellie 114; Yancura, Chuck 121 Nora 114—5; Oscar Washington Wheeler, Joe 107 Vaughan, M artha 58; M artin 59 113-4; Phoebia 115; Rosalie 114-5; Young, Gregg 82; Thomas J. 53 Sallie Polk Walls 113—5 Whitney, Eli 66 Vaughn, Dennis 45; Ella Hughes 71; George W ashington 71; Joyce Swope, Cyntha Early 68; John 68; W hitw orth,____15,27,31; 45; Laura 71; Micajah 71; Nannie Virginia Augusta 68 Charles 135; M arion (M arlon) 71; Sarah Elizabeth Yancey 71; 122; M attie 40—1; M ildred 41; Tabitha 71 Sandra 114; Sara Landman 33; T Tommy 33; W. A. 121 Tarwater, Bish M. 122

WWagner, BobWWagner, 1, 123 Wiggins, Annie E. 38; Jackie G. Taylor, Kip 32 Dunn 36; Richard A. 36; Robert Wakefield, Robbin 122 Em m ett 17, 36, 58, 100-1 Thedford, Louise Brockway 107

Walde, Megan 102 Wikle, Arthur 110; J. Ollie 34—5, Thomas, D. T. 117 122; Jane 35; Jesse Ollie 34; Walker, James 19; Janet 19; Jesse Luther Lafayette 34-5, 41, 114 Thompson, R. W. 55; W illiam 13 71; Rebecca 71; W illiam 19 Wilbanks, Burwell 121 Thornton, Elizabeth Sharp Wall, Alfred 71; Rebecca 62; Frances Farley 61; Frances W alker 71 Williams, Carl Allen 42; L orinda Farley 61; H erbert Charles D. 101; Doward 48; Lafayette 61—2, 122; Joanne Wallace, Guy E. 55 H . B. 62; James Edward 40—1, Rowe 62; Lorinda Clark 62; 45, 58, 117, 121; James Tillman Maurice 62; Nancy Kate 62; Walls, Sallie Polk 113 41, 117—8; Jesse Tillm an 41; W illiam Gillespie 62 Kathleen (“Naneen”) Apperson Wann, Vida B. 45; William 48, 122 48, 70; Lorinda Thornton 62; About the A uthor

John Patrick Rankin attended school in the village of Washington, Mississippi. That village was the first territorial Capital of both Alabama and Mississippi. Mr. Rankin enjoyed a 31-year professional engineering and management career with Boeing in the aerospace industry. His career included work in design and devel­ opment of every U. S. manned space project from Apollo through the International Space Station, as well as a wide variety of other projects and industries. He moved to Madison from California in 1986 and left the workforce on permanent medical disability ten years later. Even before that time, he began researching the history of Madison and its pioneer families plus participating in various projects with the Madison Station Historical Preservation Soci­ ety. Additionally, he has volunteered for several years to assist the Army on Redstone Arsenal in documenting the history of its land pioneers. In these capacities, he has prepared extensive reports on the cemeteries in the Madison and Redstone Arsenal areas. Along the way he has been a member of the book committees for development of county history books about Madison, Morgan, Marshall, Lawrence, and Limestone counties of north Alabama. He likewise has written articles that were published in five other county history books. He resides in the heart of Madison, on Madi­ son Avenue, in Madison County, with his wife of 43 years, Mildred Marie McCaa from Meadville, Mississippi. Author’s post-printing error correction, page 101:

Ieyminda Canterbury (b. ~1840), daughter of Charles M. Canterbury of Madison County, married David D. Dedman of Marengo County in 1858. He was not the David D. Dedman of Madison County, who married Ami H. Erwin in 1845. Icyminda was abandoned after only two weeks of marriage. In 1869 she married Francis Brockway, who was 15 years her senior. This information was found on affidavits for her Union soldier’s widow’s pension, filed in 1901 and 1903.

ohn Patrick Rankin attended school in the village of Wash­ ington, Mississippi. That Jvillage was the first ter­ ritorial Capital of both Alabama and Mississippi. Mr. Rankin enjoyed a 31-year professional engineering and management career with Boeing in the aerospace industry. His career included work in design and development of every U. S. manned space project from Apollo through the International Space Station, as well as a wide variety of other projects and industries. He moved to Madison from California in 1986 and left the workforce on permanent medical dis­ ability ten years later. Even before that time, he began researching the history of Madison and its pioneer families plus participating in various projects with the Madison Station Historical Preservation Society. Additionally, he has volunteered for several years to assist the Army on Redstone Arsenal in documenting the history of its land pioneers. In these capacities, he has prepared extensive reports on the cemeteries in the Madison and Redstone Arsenal areas. Along the way he has been a member ot the book committees for development of county history books about Madison, Morgan, Marshall, Lawrence, and Limestone counties of north Alabama. He likewise has written articles that were published in five other county history books. He resides in the heart of M adi­ son, on Madison Avenue, in Madison County, with his wife of 43 years, Mildred M arie McCaa from M ead ville, Mississippi.

THE D o n n in g C o m pa n y PUBLISHERS ISBN: 978-1-57864-398-1